Twenty-Four Notes

by

Gadfly

            Taps consists of merely 24 notes, still touching millions of lives as we honor those who gave their lives for a greater cause.  This is an American tradition that blossomed from earlier European practices called tattoos.  Among other occasions, taps are played at dusk at American military installations and at the funerals for those killed in combat and for veterans.

            What is that greater cause for which our veterans have served?

After seven years of brutal combat during the Revolutionary War and learning of an anonymous letter circulating among his officers to mutiny or to leave their posts, George Washington urged his soldiers to stay the course.  On March 16, 1783, Washington assembled his officers to address the issue.  While rebuking the anonymous letter, he did not demean the officers.  He inspired them to stay the course.  Eric Metaxas observes in his book, If You Can Keep It:  The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, “Washington’s language is a far cry from anything we hear today.  I am not referring to his lofty and ennobling style of speech…But far more important is his use of specific words and phrases like ‘reputation,’ ‘patient virtue,’ ‘dignity,’ ‘glory,’ and ‘sacred honor.’”  The cause for their devotion and sacrifice was inspired by our Declaration of Independence.  That cause was enshrined in these words, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  Our Founders did not equivocate as to the source of these rights, explicitly acknowledging the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”  Our Founders placed great faith in a future that would unfold, based on a government designed to protect these inalienable rights.

Facing imminent battle against a larger formation at Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain, formerly a rhetoric professor at Bowdoin College in Maine and a colonel in the Union Army, calmly justified to his men what they were about to do.  He told his men that they were up against a formidable force and that they would suffer great casualties, possibly defeat; but, they were engaged in an important effort “to set other men free.”  It was their moral duty to do the right thing.  After running out of ammunition, Chamberlain directed his men to attach bayonets, and then charged the opposing force.  The visible display of courage and determination compelled the opposing force into retreat.

The battle of Gettysburg witnessed brave actions and sacrifices by both sides of the conflict regarding the morality of the institution of slavery.  The vast majority of those who fought for the South were not slaveholders.  Many were conscripted to fight for the South.  In hindsight, we can better understand the complexities and distinctions between loyalty to certain principles and the notion of patriotism to one’s culture.  This is why multiculturalism in today’s America is so dangerous, especially if it is encouraged for whatever reason.

John Stuart Mill captured this complexity in his famous 1862 essay, “The Contest in America”:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice—is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature, who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.   

Abraham Lincoln recognized and clearly understood the significance of the American sacrifice at Gettysburg.  Lincoln captured the essence of our Civil War with his famous address on November 19, 1863:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln understood the importance and power of a Constitutional Republic and its potential for a way of life that would allow free citizens in a free and just society to pursue their own futures.  Ironically, Speaker Pelosi believes the cause for which fellow Americans gave their last measure of devotion is for a better future that is envisioned by political elite.  On May 23, she asked that as we approach Memorial Day, we need “to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.”  Lincoln believed our government was designed to protect our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and a future that each of us individually envisions for ourselves and our families.

As a 34-year veteran, I served to protect the Constitution of the United States and the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for each and every American, as well as for the people of other nations living under the oppression of tyrannical governments.  America is not perfect and never will be despite the delusional notions of progressives and socialists.  However, the idea of America is an ideal worth comprehending and for which to strive and fight.

When taps is played at my funeral, I hope to have been worthy of the lyrics developed for these 24-notes:

Day is done, gone the sun,
 From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
 All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.

Meanwhile, I sincerely thank and respectfully salute all those we celebrate on this Memorial Day.  I also thank their family members and loved ones who were loyal to their devotion to America and for which it stands; they gave and sacrificed as well.