Editorial: A day with meaning

Every year at this time the question on our minds should be the same.

Could we make the ultimate sacrifice for our comrades, for our country?

And at a time when the culture promotes nothing but selfishness and foolishness, are there still young men and women who willingly face death and injury to fight our nation’s mortal enemies?

On this Island, Joey Theinert and his Army comrades will be on everyone’s mind on Monday when the Legion conducts Shelter Island’s annual Memorial Day ceremonies.

Just a year ago, Lt. Theinert was leading his platoon of 20 men on a mission in Kandahar Province, when they encountered hostile fire and were forced toward an area mined with improvised explosive devices. He disabled one IED and approached a second when the trigger mechanism sounded. He warned the others to get back. He died but none of the men were injured when the device exploded. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart for his heroic actions.

Joe Theinert gave his all for his comrades and his country. Last weekend’s stirring visit to Shelter Island by the men of his Army troop helped bring him back to life for all his friends and family. This unique place, Shelter Island, was as important to that process of grieving and healing as the caring people who participated in the memorial meeting of Joe’s civilian amd military families.

About 148 years ago now, President Lincoln, speaking at the battlefield at Gettysburg, said those who hadn’t fought there could not consecrate that blood-drenched soil. He said  “the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract” with mere words.

He spoke the truth, and yet his words proved timelesss, and no writer can beat them:

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Thank you, Joe Theinert, and all the soldiers who, for the sake of their comrades and their country, have given, or remain ready to give, their “last full measure of devotion.”