Imperial Valley press., 1943-05-31
DEAD MEN TO
TELL TALES

Memorial Day has come and gone. 1t
was Sunday, though a lot of people be-
lieved it was Monday, because that day
was holiday. That is, they thought II
was Monday if they gave it any thought
at all, of which negligence many were
guilty.
But many did give it thought They
listened to vague whisperingS from
tongues long silenced They listened to
tales of anguish, of bloody pain, of lone
ly, agonized death under the most hor-
rible of inhuman circumstances; of heads
shot off, of feet, hands, legs blown to
bits, of CUTS smashed out.
CHASTITY and terrible things to say
about the dead? Not at all CHASTITY in
comparison with the actual facts horri-
bic facts which happened to our grand
dads and great-uncles in the Civil war;
to thousands of fevered cOrpseS in the
Spanish war; hundreds of
thousands more in battle and flu-infested
camp of the first world war-thousands
of brothers and dads and husbands to-
day-yes, words are Just toys alongside
the horrible truth.
Whoever said dead men tell no tales,
was crassly mistaken Dead men talk
and will continue to talk forever and
day-to tell us things as long as this
nation endures.
They tell us why they died. They tell
us that every time the sun rises we should
give thanks to God and to them for that
which we have.
We are their debtors and always will
be. For what we are, they paid the price.
We paid nothing in comparison. The
creation of this country was bought by
them. What this country gives us, they
have foregone They took from them
some of us could enjoy that which none
would have enjoyed had these men and
women been unwilling to die.
Those who died in the Civil war be-
queathed much toward the end of human
kind.
Those who died in the Spanish
can war struck the first battle spark of
the willingness of this nation to wage
war not for the expansion OF empire
nor the freedom of ourselves but for
theory of improving humankind without
national reward.
Those who died in World War | carried
that torch on still further, making con-
crete the reality that the United States
and its peoples will fight for a Christian
concept and the good of humanity and
the world.
They may not have bought the full
measure of that for which they fought
amongst other things a world safe against
wars But theirs was the pain and an
guish of the birth of a great possibility.
Just as motherhood does not bring upon
this earth humankind in full and mature
stature, neither did the blood spilled in
IT and '18 produce full fledged accom-
plishment of purpose.
But it produced and sent upon its way
through childhood and adolescence a po-
tential giant in the making whose devel-
opment into full maturity will be-MUST
BE-furthered and speeded by the blood
of Al, and AZ, and '43 and '44 and :?
Memorial Day told us to sit quietly and
listen to the past, to bow down and pray
our blessings to the men who have acted
as sacred sacrifices in behalf of this pain
full development of humankind
Yes. dead men do tell tales, tales which
comprise the alpha and omega, the birth
and the purpose, the origin and the OBJ
jective of this country and of mankind,
world without end.
Those with ears TO hear and eyes to
see should pay close attention not only
on this one day of the year, but upon
every day. because every day should be
nov in free nation