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Real Answers™
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Copyright: ©2010 Kendall Wingrove
810 words

PAYING THE DAILY COST OF FREEDOM

By: Kendall Wingrove

   
The name John Finn probably doesn't ring a bell. The fact that so few people know about him speaks volumes about our country and what it values.

When he died at 100 just before Memorial Day 2010, John Finn was the nation's oldest Medal of Honor recipient and the last to earn the medal for bravery during the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, Finn was stationed at a naval air station on the island of Oahu. That morning, he was about a mile from the aircraft hangars when the sound of gunfire erupted. While driving to the hangars, he could see the airbase was under attack.

Finn quickly found a movable platform used for gunnery training, attached a machine gun and spent the next two hours firing on Japanese planes. Finn refused to quit, despite intense bleeding and 21 injuries by bullets and shrapnel. As his Medal of Honor citation read: "Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man this gun and to return the enemy's fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety."

Finn survived that grim day, but 2,400 others did not. It was the start of a long and painful war that involved sacrifices on foreign shores and on the American homefront.

The era was described in "The Greatest Generation” by Tom Brokaw:

"At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy and Austria and the coral islands of the Pacific… They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world."

Subsequent generations enjoying the freedom preserved by Finn and his peers have sometimes lost sight of the sacrifices made along the way. Rather than relegating our observances to a few official holidays, we need a renewed emphasis and appreciation for what was done on our behalf.

It's not enough to lay wreaths at memorials or to plant flags by weather-beaten headstones. Instead, let’s plant our feet and walk with determination every day to safeguard this precious legacy.

Our schools need to spend more time educating students about liberty’s origins and defenders. While our nation should admit its mistakes, there should be more to historical discourse than endless apologies for America's shortcomings.

We should vote in every election and hold officials accountable for their actions. In between, let’s glance in the mirror and start accounting for our own behavior instead of conveniently blaming the system.

We should learn to live within our means, patiently saving for what we need and quit succumbing to the allure of instant gratification. Let’s resist the insatiable desire to raid the public purse while passing the buck and the bills onto our grandchildren.

We should pursue excellence and reject mediocrity. How refreshing it would be to revel in the achievement of scholars and artists and to cherish the beauty around us instead of rolling around in the mud of scandal and gossip.

Tens of millions of Americans wait eagerly for the latest tabloid headlines about Kate Gosselin or Paris Hilton, yet they've never heard of John Finn. Instead of watching so-called "reality" shows and remaining fixated on celebrities who are famous only for being famous, the culture might consider concentrating on genuine heroes with real accomplishments.

The comments of a veteran named Bruce Egger put it all in perspective. Egger survived D-Day and saw plenty of front line action in Europe near the end of World War II. The GI had several close calls, most notably a piece of shrapnel stopped by a New Testament in the breast pocket of his field jacket.

Egger said in a memoir: "For all the misery and fear and the hating every moment of it, the war was a great, if always terrifying adventure. Not a man among us would want to go through it again, but we are all proud of having been so severely tested and found adequate."

A verse in Egger’s Bible points the way. In the second chapter of Philippians it says: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

John Finn and Bruce Egger were ready when the tests came. They defeated tyranny and championed freedom. They were concerned about the interests of others, defending them despite all the risks. When current generations arrive at their rendezvous with destiny, and are severely tested, we hope they too will be found adequate.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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