November 1, 2004

• Five weeks prior to the end of World War I, a relatively small group of American soldiers, the 1st Battalion 308th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division, lay shivering deep in the bowels of the Argonne forest.  They entered the forest with 600 men and four days later were carved down to just over 200.  They had rushed forward, as ordered, and had fought their way ahead of their flanking support and their rear supply lines.  The German lines had flowed around their small circle and closed in behind them.  They were surrounded like a thorn that the body encircles with inflammation.  And they were just that, a brave thorn in the defenses of the last German line of resistance.  They were offered terms of surrender on several occasions, but the commander, with the support of his battered troops, refused.  His refusal was based on his belief that it had fallen upon him and his men to hold this piece of ground.  This was the part that fate would have them play in the fight against tyranny.  If they did their duty and held this small piece of wood, they might help end the blood bath of this, the latest human convulsion called war.

   

  The dead had mostly died horrible, agonizing deaths.  The defensive strategies at the time of this war had not caught up with the new technologies of death.  The wounded suffered from lack of food and water and nothing to relieve the pain.  The living struggled to maintain their resolve and courage while awaiting the horrors that would again emerge from the forest mist.  Where did they find the courage?  How does one hold onto sanity in these conditions?  A small stream lay within sight, yet several men were lost to snipers as they made a courageous flight to retrieve water for the wounded.  The long awaited artillery support brought fleeting elation as it quickly turned to the nightmare of “friendly fire” death.  And yet they held on.

   

  What was their motivation?  Certainly each man had his own story; his own values.  Most were probably not driven by a broad view of their part in the geo-political future.  But, I also suspect that they held a sense of obligation and duty to a way of life that they understood as better than what the world had offered to its people in the past.  They each in their own way knew that future generations would be influenced by their actions and sacrifice; a sacrifice that is beyond the ability of most people to comprehend.

   

  Tomorrow we have the privilege to be able to vote for the people who will govern us.  We select those who will make our laws, administrate the laws, and apply justice.  It is easy to get caught up in the cynicism of how our political system has evolved.  Much of this cynicism is justified.  Yet all of the cynicism pales in the historical light of the fact that we can safely, without threat of persecution cast our vote.

   

  We owe it to that one shivering soldier lying in the mud waiting for his destiny to come shrieking through the trees, to participate in the system that has been won over and over again at such remarkable cost.

   

  Please vote.

  • 4:12 pm
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