Freedom to …
Yesterday my husband and I made our annual pilgrimage to
Arlington National Cemetery. In recent
years we have been going there on the days near either Memorial Day or Veterans
Day. We have now five gravesites we
visit on these trips. They mark the
final resting place of one relative, one neighbor, and three friends with whom
my husband once served during his Army career.
Over the years I have gone to this sacred place as a
location for contemplation and reflection and yes, even exercise. When we visit our normal five gravesites we
have walked the far reaches of the cemetery, up hill and down!
Yesterday’s trip was particularly poignant for me as an
Army wife and as an ordained minister.
The picture above is from one of two caissons bearing the caskets to
their final resting place. In all the
years that I have been going to Arlington, this is the first time I have
experienced this. I was moved to tears
by this final tribute to a life given in service to our country.
As I walked those hallowed grounds I thought about the
freedoms for which these men and women fought.
Because of recent newspaper coverage of local events, I particularly
thought about the Bill of Rights, especially Freedom of Speech.
Within the past week a noose was displayed on a tree near
the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden on the Washington Mall. Another noose appeared inside the new
National Museum of African-American History and Culture. According to the news release from the
Smithsonian, tourists found the noose Wednesday afternoon on the floor in front
of the interpretive display about the KKK and segregation. The noose has been found displayed (complete
with hate language) on the campus of American University. There is a definitely ugly and evil pattern
of protest developing in the nation’s capital.
I have no idea of the political ideology of the fallen
soldier on way to his final resting place yesterday midday. One of the powerful effects of Arlington
National Cemetery is the uniform gravesites where all who served are honored
with equality.
I do know, being an Army wife, is that those men and
women who fought for freedom did not intend that our freedoms should be used
for hate and violence against one another.
Yes, our freedom of speech, means we can resort to the lowest common
denominator of language. But it does not
condone such hate language (in word, symbol, or action) because that is not an
American value. We, as Americans, are at
our best when we affirm our dignity as Americans and when we talk, debate,
compromise with one another for our common good.
As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ I felt a deep
pain yesterday as I walked throughout Arlington National Cemetery. It was a pain of loss. Yes, of course, the loss of those buried
there. But more than that, I felt a loss
of our humanity toward one another. I
felt the loss that is being symbolized through a distortion of the teachings in
the Bible. I felt a loss that “Me First”
was displacing “We together”.
In Galatians 5:13-15 the Apostle Paul writes: For you
were called for freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as
an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one
another. For the whole law is summed up
in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another,
take care that you are not consumed by one another.
As the graves of those who have fought for freedom stand
sentinel overlooking both the Pentagon and our national capital, Washington DC,
may we all return to the values embedded in our founding documents that freedom
of speech is not meant to destroy the fabric of our life together in all our
diversity.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Clara
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