A Memorial Day Blessing
- (This article was originally published for Memorial Day 2025)
Time constraints, meeting deadlines for printing, and the hope my brain is functioning correctly when needed, all make it necessary for me to write bulletin articles weeks in advance. Tomorrow is Memorial Day which helped me choose my topic, and by coincidence or better by divine providence, I received my inspiration for this article on May 6. I was thinking about a military topic when a news article arrived in my inbox about the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Trump’s executive order banning transgender persons from the military. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of disturbance from the liberal New York Times that posted the article with their usual biases.
I am one who chooses to read what the opposition says just to keep up with the bleeding hearts. Unfortunately, I am sorry I cannot read the news from either side and halfway believe that anyone in journalism tells the truth. Because of this, I am interested in the comments below the articles to see what people really think. I know this is an unscientific measurement of consensus across our country, not nearly as exact as the polling data we receive from, again, biased news agencies. In my unqualified assessment, most readers of the New York Times agree with their opinions. Thus, it was surprising to see nearly all the comments supporting the Supreme Court’s decision with the most common argument that mentally unstable people are neither dependable nor combat ready.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to sail on a United States Navy destroyer from Hawaii to San Diego. The trip was thrilling, the pride in our military exhilarating, and the confidence in national protection assured. However, there were some disturbing elements. I do not know how to describe it better than saying there was far too much lack of discipline which seemed to me to be the result of too many snowflake sailors. My suspicion is officers are too concerned with disciplinary action against them if they hurt feelings which shatters much of the confidence that soldiers will perform properly by order rather than begging. I remember my son-in-law who retired as a Navy chief cited proper discipline as the biggest change over his more than twenty-year career. Much of this relates to the presence of homosexual troops. The unnatural will never bode well for our confidence.
None of what I say here diminishes my respect for upright, upstanding, courageous members of our military. In fact, many serve and risk themselves despite onerous personnel decisions. Our country needs defense, and their sacrifice deserves our grateful applause. They serve in the spirit of the thousands who gave their lives, and our country honors them each Memorial Day. I suspect many of them smile at the Supreme Court decision. This is one step back into sanity that also needs attention in removal from our school system that grooms our youngest most helpless and vulnerable. Stop it there and our armed forces will not need to deal with it later.
Pastor V. Mark Smith