You know something? I think we need to put the brakes on here.
It’s important not to let others be in charge of definition.
By this I mean, who are you? What is America? What is patriotism? For those who are Christian, what is Christianity? What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? What does it mean to be a good person?
Today, I think of everyone who has fought for freedom. I think of all of our family members and ancestors who have done this.
I think of all of my ancestors, all of whom were an immigrant at some point. If you are not Native American, this is a fact about you as well. No, it is not different because it was a long time ago.
When American soldiers fought and died in World War II, they were fighting against a way of being in the world that Adolf Hitler was putting forth. Other countries had joined him. It was an effort to redefine the world in a very ugly, horrifying way.
One of the hallmarks of this was redefining worth based on a very narrow structure. And if you fell outside of this, you were nothing and it was OK to harm you or kill you.
Frankly, I don’t care what your belief system is. If you believe that it is acceptable to limit, harm, discriminate against, take rights away from, or otherwise interfere with the rights and freedom of others then I will tell you now that your values are neither Jesus like nor are they American. If this is your belief system, you are not in any way, shape, or form a good person.
A belief system like this is an abomination.
And today, on Memorial Day, I will remind you that American soldiers didn’t die all over the world for the cause of freedom so that you could curtail the freedom of other people. It’s wrong. And it goes against everything these men and women died for. You dishonor their memories.
For some people in this country, the blowback is because we had the audacity to elect a man of color to the White House, a man who is well read, well spoken, highly educated, and has a love for his country. He loves his wife, is faithful to her, and is a good father to his daughters.
We had made progress in LGBTQIA+ rights. We were making progress in making sure that everyone had a chance, progress was being made in education being available to everyone. We wanted food to be available to everyone. Wonderful work was being done in women’s rights.
You can’t pretend that opportunity and availability of resources is handed out evenly in this country. It isn’t and it never has been. I’m sorry that our progress in that direction makes you upset. It doesn’t mean people don’t have to work for what they get. It means that we acknowledge that not everyone starts off at the same availability of resources.
So, we finally started to make some real progress, at least beginning to go in the right direction.
For some of you, that was just unacceptable, and you’ve been angry ever since.
Some people are very open about their feelings on this. Others have spent a life on autopilot and don’t even realize what they’re mad about.
Either way, today I honor American soldiers who have fought and died for the cause of freedom all over the world. And I will not dishonor their memory by allowing anyone to redefine goodness, to redefine America, or to redefine patriotism. This is my America too. And you’re not changing her into something ugly. And that’s what these men and women fought and died for. And that is what I honor them for. You don’t get to dishonor their memories by changing us into something else. And you never will.
