Memorial Day (Weekend), 2024...

  Love her or hate her, America is the only home we have...

I even know a priest that despises the U.S. Constitution, commenting on how "un-Christian" it is, and that our whole system of governance is based on the ideas of the Founding Fathers -- freemasons and deists.  But I say, that's what we have to work with, and until the implementation of the Social Reign of Christ the King, it'll have to do.

The question then begs: will we ever see that Heavenly reign upon earth??

Perhaps not in our lifetimes, but in the Father's "time" it will happen!

I also wonder out loud, if that priest actually realizes that he can get on his soapbox and criticize the faults and injustices all wants without being sent to Siberia?

Yet, if he were living and writing in, let's say, North Korea, Red China, Iran, etc., you get the idea, he wouldn't last a day at his typewriter or computer keyboard without being arrested.

So even though he has the right to believe what he wants to about our country and the Constitution, he should also realize that Memorial Day recognizes those VETERANS who made the ultimate sacrifice that allows that priest those guaranteed rights in the first place!

Don't get me wrong, I am not so naive to think that it is the government that grants our natural rights to us, nay!  It is God almighty Who has made us in the image and likeness of the Blessed Trinity and because of that we are endowed with those inalienable rights.   

Getting back to Memorial Day... It seems that some Americans look upon this Day as just another day off from work, a time for cookouts, barbecues and travels and the unofficial start of the summer driving season, etc.

It means a lot more than that to me, being a Vietnam veteran and the brother of a Navy veteran who participated in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis while stationed on the U.S.S. Constellation aircraft carrier...

I remember my dear mother on pins and needles while all that craziness was going on!  I'm sure she said many prayers for his safety -- and for peace in the world, as we came very close to a nuclear war with the old Soviet Union.

A mere five years later, when I got my orders to Vietnam, my mother's heart, once again, sunk down to the pit of her stomach, worrying -- again -- if one of her son's would become a casualty of war.

I finally arrived in-country on December 16, 1967, and returned home back on December 16, 1968, not physically wounded, but nonetheless changed forever.

And, as it turned out, I did become "wounded" many years later from the effects of the chemical Agent Orange which was used to defoliate the forests and jungles to reveal the hiding places of the Viet Cong (VC) and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) enemy forces...

I have received much needed and frequent treatment at the VA hospital for my service-connected ailments. But I'm far from the only one as I observe many Vietnam vets seeking treatment for their afflictions due to their service while deployed to Vietnam.  Again, due to the effects of Agent Orange as well as PTSD and the ongoing effects of old bullet and shrapnel wounds.

Each year the number of Vietnam vets still living are decreasing at an alarming speed, succumbing to their diseases, drugs -- and, yes, even suicide...

God have mercy on them!

You can imagine that there are fewer and fewer Korean war vets, and virtually no World War II vets still alive, I hope, though, that I'm wrong on that score...

On that sad score, I'll close this missive for now, but I'll ask all of you to say a prayer for all Vietnam vets and for peace in a world on the brink of destruction.

Here is a line from a poem I wrote concerning my brother veterans (taken from one of my books!): I may not have liked you, but I loved you...

Pray for strength and honor!

Viva Cristo Rey!  Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

St. Joseph pray for us...

I almost forgot...Please check out this (emotional) movie: Decoration Day...(8478) Decoration Day (1990) - YouTube

Gene DeLalla