1 00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 1: Today is Memorial Day, May seven, twenty twenty four, one 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:11,039 Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two days before the next American presidential election. 3 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: This is the warning. This is Arlington House. It sits 4 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:22,599 Speaker 1: on a hill opposite the Potomac River, looking towards the 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:26,240 Speaker 1: United States Capital, with the Washington Monument in the middle 6 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: facing the Lincoln Memorial. This was Robert E. Lee's home. 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: In this home he resigned his commission in the United 8 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: States Army and became the commander of the Army of 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: Northern Virginia. This property was confiscated by the government of 10 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,720 Speaker 1: the United States and is the Butcher's Bill. For the 11 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: horror of the War of Secession. The American Army buried 12 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: instead on Lee's property, and today that property is America's 13 00:00:55,440 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: most hallowed grounds, Arlington National Cemetery. There in front of 14 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: every gravesite is a small American flag, put there to 15 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:09,520 Speaker 1: remember the sacrifices and the service. Such it is so 16 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: at American cemeteries all over the world. General Colin Powell 17 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: famously commented that when the American Army came to Europe, 18 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: it did not come to occupy, and it did not 19 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:27,320 Speaker 1: come to subjugate, but rather to liberate and the only 20 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: land that the United States ever asked for was simply 21 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:37,400 Speaker 1: enough to bury its dead. These sacred spaces, these slivers 22 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: of United States territory, not the world, including at Normandy, France, 23 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: the cemetery in Colville, Somaia, above Omaha Beach. Here thirty 24 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: eight pairs of brothers are buried next to one another, 25 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: father and a son, almost ten thousand graves. Every headstone 26 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: faces west across the Atlantic Ocean, back towards American shores. 27 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: That they left, that they died fighting in a far 28 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: away land to protect. They died for a concept, for liberty, freedom, 29 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: human dignity. They died to free the enslaved and oppressed 30 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: peoples of Europe. The American soldier has fought for freedom 31 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:27,600 Speaker 1: all across the world, sometimes in wars that should not 32 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: have been fought, were fought for misguided purposes, ideological purposes, 33 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: unnecessary purposes. Generation was sent to fight in the Vietnam 34 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: War when the politicians knew the war cannot be won, 35 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: that there was no hope of victory. Yet that does 36 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: not render the service less meaningful, or honorable or noble. 37 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: Because the intention of the American soldier for its service 38 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: of their nation has never been endowed when the cause 39 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: has been desecrated by the mischief, judgments, or the malice 40 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 1: or malfeasance of political leaders who were unworthy of the 41 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: responsibilities handed to them by the parents of those soldiers 42 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: through elections. There is no issue more important than peace. 43 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: There are major wars underway in the world on this 44 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: Memorial Day. Some demagoguic politicians in the United States say, 45 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: these wars do not involve us, these wars do not 46 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: threaten us. But that is not the lesson of history, 47 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: and that is not borne out by the sacrifices of 48 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: a million American dead who laid down their lives in 49 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 1: what Abraham Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion. 50 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: What history teaches us is that freedom comes at a 51 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: terrible cost and price. This Memorial Day, we should remember 52 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,360 Speaker 1: the price and the cost of that freedom, because so 53 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: many Americans seem utterly indifferent to it, indifferent to the 54 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:07,080 Speaker 1: freedom that they have that they possess that came with 55 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: such great cost. Yet there seems to be no memory 56 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:17,200 Speaker 1: of the struggle, no recollection of the sacrifice, for so 57 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: many multitudes of Americans who go about oblivious to the 58 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: fangs that bear down on them even as we speak. 59 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:32,920 Speaker 1: The jackboot is not a foreign disposition that is alien 60 00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:36,840 Speaker 1: to the American way of life. Make no mistake, it 61 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: can come down here and in many ways. It has 62 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: in many places. In difference is the friend of that 63 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,599 Speaker 1: jack boot. It is the fuel of government thuggery. It 64 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:53,839 Speaker 1: is what causes despotism. Today's a day when we celebrate 65 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: freedom by honoring the last full measure of devotion, where 66 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:06,599 Speaker 1: we member the American soldier, sailor, airmen, marine coastguardsmen, and 67 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: merchant marine men who gave their life so that the 68 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: United States could endure. There is nothing in any of 69 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: our lives that is more important, Not our marriages, not 70 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 1: our children, not our money, not our prosperity, not our health. 71 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:34,240 Speaker 1: Nothing more important that during the short span of our lives, 72 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 1: that we play our part as custodians and stewarts, preserving, protecting, 73 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:49,800 Speaker 1: and defending, through acts small and large, the Constitution of 74 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: the United States of America for which they pledged their 75 00:05:55,120 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: lives and gave their lives. This is the cause of 76 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: American citizenship, This is the obligations of its duties and responsibilities. 77 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:15,839 Speaker 1: And today we celebrate the greatest Americans amongst all Americans 78 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: who have ever been, there have only ever been seven 79 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:25,280 Speaker 1: hundred million Americans. One million have given their lives in uniform. 80 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: They have represented every creed, every race, every faith. They 81 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: are the whole of the American people, and every one 82 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: of them was laid to rest under the national colors. 83 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: And today that flag, our American flag that we share, 84 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: our united symbol, that we lower to half mass and 85 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: then raise up to full staff, has fifty stars on 86 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,159 Speaker 1: its canton. And that flag is truly the flag of 87 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: American freedom because it is the fifty star flag where 88 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: all Americans, of all creeds, all fates can finally participate 89 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,400 Speaker 1: equally as citizens of the Great Republic. And that's something 90 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: worth celebrating and something worth remembering as we honor America's 91 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 1: fallen war dead today with the deepest gratitude and the 92 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: greatest love. They died for people they did not know, 93 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: people like us who were not born yet, so that 94 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: our children may live in peace and prosperity and freedom. 95 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: That is an act of love. Ponder its magnitude today, 96 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 1: if even for a minute, it will be a moment 97 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:36,920 Speaker 1: that does some justice to the immensity of the sacrifice 98 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: made by so many so that we could walk free today, 99 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: look up at the sky or down at the grass, 100 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: and not worry about a monster behind the tree. Happy 101 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: Memorial Day. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning and 102 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: I invite you to join. Subscribe on our sub stack, 103 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: on our Utithan channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.