Honoring the Soldiers

It is up to us to give their lives meaning. To poach a phrase, we are the deciders.

THE YOUNG DEAD SOLDIERS
by Archibald Mcleish

The Young dead soldiers do not speak. Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died. Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours; they are yours; they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say; it is you who must say this.

They say: We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.


We need to finish it--by bringing the troops home.