“The dead men would not want us to gloat.”
Those words come from Ernie Pyle, the war correspondent who covered World War II from the inside out ... from the trenches, tents and ditches, shoulder to shoulder with the troops. He watched them fight — and saw many die — before he, too, was eventually cut down by machine-gun fire.
His words seem appropriate today as Memorial Day observances unfold with dignity and humility in our hometowns.
From the heat of battle, he wrote:
"In their eyes as they pass is not hatred, not excitement, not despair, not the tonic of their victory — there is just the simple expression of being here as though they had been here doing this forever, and nothing else."
In his book, "Brave Men," Pyle wrote in his final chapter:
“The end of the war will be a gigantic relief, but it cannot be a matter of hilarity for most of us. It would seem sacrilegious to sing and dance when the great day comes — there are so many who can never sing and dance again. …
“We have won this war because our men are brave. … We did not win it because destiny created us better than all other peoples. I hope that in victory we are more grateful than we are proud. I hope we can rejoice in victory — but humbly. ...
“And all of us together will have to learn how to reassemble our broken world into patterns so firm and so fair that another great war cannot soon be possible. …
"… I have heard soldiers say a thousand times, ‘If only we could have created all this energy for something good.’ …"
Today, remember all those who died for country, cause, and family … and then reflect on what they would want each of us to do — now and tomorrow.
And remember … “The dead men would not want us to gloat.”
I'm Lonny Cain, and that's my perspective.
