For most of our veterans, it should go without saying that military discipline and experience give them a moral authority. It is a recognition—once universal—that is too often forgotten in an age when patriotism itself seems suspect to many. On this day when we honor our veterans, it’s good to recollect both the debt of [...]
As we approach Remembrance Sunday I am reposting this sonnet about the two minutes silence, which was first published in my book Sounding the Seasons. I'm posting it early so that any one who wishes to, can use it in services or events on this Remembrance Sunday. So here is how it came to be [...]
On January 25, 1945, the Battle of the Bulge ended. But not until a decade after my father’s death did I uncover the fact that he fought in what one historian has deemed the greatest battle in history. Cpl. Joseph D. Klugewicz won a Bronze Star for his actions against the Nazis that winter. But [...]
I stood in the flag-decked cheering crowd Where all but I were gay, And gazing on their ecstasy, My heart shrank in dismay. For theirs was the joy of the 'little folk' The cruel glee of the weak, Who, banded together, have slain the strong Which none alone dared seek. The Bosch we know was [...]
This Veterans Day, I would encourage you to remember and honor veterans, but less because what they have done, and more because of what their service represents—that is, a space for robust civil society, and human flourishing. Our nation has been at war now for more than a decade. Since the first troops were sent [...]
On Veterans Day, we honor our surviving warriors. We rightly give thanks to those who have sacrificed their personal peace for the survival of the nation. And we rededicate ourselves to fulfilling the pledge “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” War endures. The oldest [...]
Unity, it seems for our nation right now, is a sense that is sorely lacking—perhaps precisely because we don't hold to the remembered past as we should. There are a number of reasons why a Veterans Day message on the topic of “Unity in Remembrance” is appropriate. As a professor of history at Hillsdale College [...]
The virtuous soldier is prudent in military matters, possessing a love for the homeland. The one who serves virtuously does so with perseverance and honesty. A soldier who takes virtue to heart is not only a valiant servant to the nation. The virtuous soldier is also a faithful servant of God. Today’s celebration of Veterans [...]
We must respect the difficulty and danger of the jobs of those who protect us and stop willfully blinding ourselves to the unpleasant realities around us. Let us defend, support, and celebrate our police and our military; without them, our world would be a far more perilous place. This semester, I am happily exercising one [...]
Gustav Holst wrote his "Ode to Death" in 1918-1919 in the wake of World War I. Though he received a medical exemption from military service, Holst had composer-friends who served (Ralph Vaughan Williams) and died (George Butterworth) in the horrific combat on the Western Front. The text of "Ode to Death" sets a section of [...]
On November 11, more than on any other day, we ought to remind ourselves that while some wars need to be fought, most don’t. We need to remember the horrors of World War I, and we need to remember the price young men and women pay whenever we allow ourselves to be duped into another needless [...]
He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark, And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey, Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, Voices of play and pleasure after day, Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him. […]
The American military has traditionally promoted love of country, self-sacrifice, and courage. These latter two virtues, especially, are honed in wartime, and though war is always to be avoided due to its many attendant evils, there is no denying that it is a singular stage upon which great acts of sacrifice and stunning displays of [...]