Remember America's roots on Memorial Day

By Steve Francis

On Memorial Day each year we recognize those who have fought and died for the freedoms that we enjoy here in America. At the Missouri Veterans Home here in Cape Girardeau, we said goodbye to 54 of our heroes this past year, and we will honor them and their families one more time in our ceremony on Memorial Day. It will be a moving ceremony.

For every veteran we have had the privilege to serve, there are countless others who never made it to a veterans home, either because they are still living on their own or they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We must not forget.

I was mowing my grass a couple of weeks ago and noticed there were tufts that were turning yellow. I spoke with Dortha Strack from Sunny Hill Gardens and learned that it was the result of voles, a cross between field mice and moles, that had eaten the roots. I thought to myself, "Is that what is happening to America?" It seems to me there are those who are eating away at our American roots, and America is changing gradually as our roots are attacked.

The genius of America can be traced to one main source, and that is our Founders' reliance upon God and the Bible for putting this nation together.

If you go to Washington, D.C., look at all the government buildings and look at the artwork in them. On nearly all of them you will find Bible verses engraved and references to God everywhere. We even have "In God We Trust" on our money, yet we cannot post the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls or have a cross on government property, or even have a government-sanctioned National Day of Prayer without having it challenged by those who want freedom from God and religion. Is this the freedom our men and women in the military have died (and are dying) for?

As one American, it is my prayer that on this Memorial Day we will not forget what our true roots are and that Americans everywhere will not forget what God and his word have done for this nation. Even though we certainly don't deserve it, may God bless America again.

Steve Francis is the chaplain at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau.