May 27, 2009
Genealogy
Our community just played host to the Moving Wall, a memorial inscribed with the names of over 58,000 men and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. Among those who attended were school children who were bused to the site. Some of these young people hoped to find their grandpa or uncle on the Wall, but were unable to locate the name in the reference book because they didn’t know the middle name of their relative. Thankfully with our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, we don’t have to worry…Jesus knows where to find us.
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Gail;
-----I am not so proud our community hosted the Moving Wall. I don’t have any disregard for the Viet Nam vets, or for those who died there. That fight was just as important as the fight for freedom in WWII. But the perceived crisis the Viet Nam War became combined with the crisis of an assassinated president and with the opportunistic crisis of riots in the streets to turn the public image of America from the innocence of the pre-sixties into the guilt of the post-sixties. The American way had been founded upon the concepts of absolute truths and the inalienable rights of the individual as given by God. And both are road blocks to a government empowered solely by the general will of the people. The irrational reaction of the public to these crises in the sixties empowered an intellectual elite to place their hands upon the heads of the white male, and send him into the wilderness carrying “the past sins” of America. Having washed free the American mind of its culture, tradition, and Biblical principles, the seed of Progressive populism, carefully watered through the preceding decades, now sprouted above ground, and has grown into the sapling from which the current powers of Washington are prepared to reap their socialist fruits of collectivism.
-----I do not blame the process upon the Viet Nam War, its veterans, or its victims, but upon the opportunists who fashion crises from difficult situations in order to derail public debate and democratic deliberation. They insist that conditions are so severe we must have a solution immediately, “…and oh, by the way, here in my caring hands is the solution you must do right now!” They drum up public resolve to squelch debate so their saving solution may be applied. Then that resolve must be maintained. The Viet Nam War has been burned into the public mind as an icon of how terrible the past American culture, traditions, and principles were, “…for look at all the dead such mentality caused for such a useless reason as bullying a poor little third world country!” Although the primary objective of the Moving Wall is pure, the aura of American guilt drug behind it is not, for the opportunists use it to maintain public resolve against debate.
-----When I visited the Moving Wall, I was moved by the tremendous list of names. And seeing loved ones placing flowers and mementoes there instilled in me great honor for each individual listed in that collection. And that is when the thought came to my mind: although the public of the sixties was dissuaded from that war’s cause, and although it is taboo to admit the cause today, at the heart of the war was still the principle of individual freedom verse slavery to collectivism. Six million Jews, gays, and gypsies perished at the hands of Nazi collectivism. Nearly twenty million Russians perished at the hands of Marxist collectivism. Over one million Cambodians died by the collectivism of the Khmer Rouge. How different would be the public mind if we marched around the country a wall listing all their names! Let alone remembering individually the more than forty million never given the chance by American populism to be born and receive a name. Each one is a victim to the unfettered general will of the people! Yet we have this wall traveling the country not only memorializing the names of those who died for freedom, but also memorializing how terrible America was for restricting the general will of the people to principles, and, God forbid, to Scripture.
-----I realize how averse my comments are to public opinion, and I am sorry if they offend. But my mind is not dissuaded by public opinion. It is persuaded first by the principles of Scripture, then by the sense I can make of what I see. And my freedom is not barred from speaking what I can best conclude. I reckon if I were to be on Earth with the anti-christ, I would loose my head early. Then we will see whose name is written in the eternal memorial, mine or that of the general will of the people.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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