America: A Day to honor its war ‘heroes’ plus the secret of United States blessings  

…Minnesotans celebrate Memorial Day despite Tornado disruptions

A Special New Feature:

The Word of God is very keen on generosity-giving to the needy or the poor. The LORD uses generosity to bless people and nations on earth. Proverbs 19:17 states, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” Perhaps, the U.S., more than any nation, has discovered the secret behind giving. Hence, God continues to Bless America! 

By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher/ALL PICTURES BY AUTHOR

In Maggie Steber’s Dancing On Fire: Photographs From Haiti, a boy living in a slum in Lusaka, Zambia, is quizzed by western journalists: they asked him what he thinks of America? 

Without a hesitation he opens up in this manner: “Ah! America…? You go to the moon, you see America! If you go into the ocean, you see America! Ah, America must be God!” 

Truly, America isn’t God, and can never become God or take His place. However, the teen’s remark signifies how many people living in faraway lands perceive Great America-especially within the realms of her supremacy-power, wealth, plus its technology.

Yet, at times, some think that not much is done to show respect to those who have contributed significantly to the making of this glorious Land of Liberty-the men and women in arms-and that’s what National Memorial Day (May 30th) is all about. It falls on the last Monday in May every year.  

The U.S. Congress and the American People, after the Civil War of 1861, thought it worthwhile to set aside a “Memorial Day” previously called “Decoration Day” for commemorating sacrifices carried out by American war heroes-living or alive!

In observance of Memorial Day

Now, elaborate outdoor events are set up in big and small towns and cities throughout the U.S. in order to celebrate the day. It also brings families together for a meal, during which they watch parades and play games with some degree of gladness. Some even plan ahead, using the holiday to go on extended weekend road trips, or vacations.

In Allington, VA., near Washington D.C. for example, an elaborate ceremony normally takes place at the National Cemetery, with the United States’ president in attendance. There, he would lay a wreath at the late Pres. John F.Kennedy’s grave to be followed by a gun salute.

In Minnesota, on the other hand, scores of people, including military families, go out to nearby cemeteries with bouquets of flowers they place to graves of their departed loved relatives whether they were in military services or not. 

At this year’s celebration in Apple Valley City, Minnesota, reports the Dakota County Tribune, the American Legion Post 1776 and Civil Air Patrol 130th Squadron had to move their program indoors due to the “intermittent stormy weather” in the area.

Bad weather hampers events but… 

The bad weather however didn’t deter Apple Valley’s next door neighbors, the city of Farmington, from staging their programs outdoors despite the threat of a Tornado looming in the area. Farmington VFW Sypal-Lundgren Post 7662 together with some veteran groups conducted their program in a cemetery under the trees.  

At Brooklyn Center’s Mound Cemetery, Minnesota, a considerable number of people, many of whom were Liberians, had gathered to remember their deceased relatives. 

They spread out in the west of the cemetery often referred to as “The Liberian Quarter” where deceased Liberian nationals have been interred. Many left the cemetery soon because of the unfavorable weather condition. 

Also in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Liberia’s international photojournalist, Gregory Stemn and his family along with friends, under partly fair weather, visited the gravesite of his wife who passed away a few months ago following a brief illness.

Similarly in Excelsior, a small west Minneapolis city where scores of US-foreign War Veterans are buried, the day’s ceremony which has gone on for years without an eruption  didn’t carry the usual pomp because of bad weather.   

But locals later returned in their numbers to the park for the annual event, to continue having fun after the stormy weather had passed. They sat along the banks of the lake while others held hands and strolled along the beautiful blue lake.

Historical significance of the day

On the eve of Memorial Day (Sunday), most Gospel ministers normally take a moment to solemnly acknowledge and honor all U.S. Service men and women-dead or alive, for their sacrificial works and some may even call on members of their congregations to stand up and say a silent prayer for the heroes. 

But Gospel preacher and former classroom teacher, Dr. Judy Fornara even takes it further, at times leading her congregation to national war memorials like Gettysburg and Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, to see history firsthand. (And they just returned from Valley Forge). 

During the tour, tour-guides go on to narrate the horrors of the U.S. Civil War of 1861, stories that Pastor Judy herself learned at a school-going age and had graphically told her congregation many times. 

Based on various historical accounts, the battles at Valley Forge (near Philadelphia), and Gettysburg Pennsylvania, became crucial between The Union Soldiers of the North, and The Confederate Army led by Gen. Robert Lee from the U.S. Deep South.

For President AB Lincoln, the battle had to be fought and won by the Union Army so as to bring the entire nation under one union, making it “The United States of America” and it happened! His decision birthed that freedom that all enjoys in America today.

The US Civil War from 1861-1865, had been prompted by the Confederates’ refusal to abolish slavery in and around their settlement in the South of North America. 

Getting the Southerners to compromise won’t come easy. Near the final end of the battle, the winter became brutal; it killed some soldiers, as narrated, and food plus other supplies, became scanty because of the battle that raged all around their Valley Forge settlement, located along Interstate 476 between Allentown and Philadelphia.  

But as it happened, Pres. AB Lincoln’s Union Soldiers prevailed against the Southerners. His victory speech at Gettysburg would eventually go down in history as the shortest and perhaps the “best speech” ever delivered by a U.S. President during wartime, although historians had described him as “shy” and a “poor public speaker.”  

America’s unending generosity 

America may have a secret weapon that many may not be aware of and it might be the “weapon” that God is using to weaken and destroy any wicked agenda programmed against America by her opponents or “enemies.” It’s generosity! 

The U.S.’s strength may lie in her desire and willingness to give generously to others, especially the poor-worldwide, irrespective of the recipients’ cultural, religion, political affiliation or beliefs system. 

Be it a war or famine in Sudan’s Darfur, or a massive drought in Mozambique, that causes acute food shortages leading to deaths of hundreds of livestock that largely sustain people in this part of Africa, the U.S. would fly in food aid either directly or via the World Food Programs and its affiliates.    

During the 90s, through 2003, when Liberia was at war with itself, and ragtag rebels roamed the streets, murdering and raping citizens, the U.S. rushed to her side with massive aids-foods and medicines-and even spent millions of U.S. dollars on maintaining the entire Senegalese peacekeeping contingent in ECOMOG. 

Again, at the height of the deadly Ebola outbreak of 2013-15 that killed nearly 5,000 people, followed by the COVID-19 epidemic of 2020, Liberia turned to America and its people for help-not the Soviets or Saudis, nor Asian-and the U.S. responded in kindness!

And apart from the “100 Marines Crisis Response Task Force” the Pentagon had earlier dispatched to the country to help with air support for Ebola reliefs, the US Army troops from the “101st Airborne Division” also followed soon afterward, according to the USNI News.    

Still, a third US Naval Fleet waited on sea or so to move in also with more medicines and other supplies, but its commander was halted after receiving report that the state of the Ebola crisis had turned favorable. 

The commander told this to writer and another African reporter at a 2015-16 U.S.-Kenya Business confab in MN. He had been accompanied by Gen. Sandy Best, Minnesota’s highest female-ranking military officer at the time. 

He said he would consider taking along African reporters/photographers for similar future missions to Africa, given the fact that they would be knowledgeable of the cultures and people. 

America’s generosity has no boundary. According to SHAREAMERICA’s July 13, 2017 edition, “Even the new Soviet Union, [America’s main rival] which lacked diplomatic relations with the U.S., received massive aid during a famine” around 1922.  

America’s style of goodwill is what the LORD God wants His people to carry out on the earth and the Bible makes it clear in Proverbs 19:17 “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”  

Russian leaders, mainly its presidents including Vladimir Putin, had always abhorred all that America stands for. Though the U.S. may have its own flaws, she’s doing exactly what God established her to do; for God implores Christians to love those in need, including “our enemies.”

And in reference to someone like Russia’s Putin, Proverbs 25:21-22 offers this: “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you” (NIV). That’s exactly what America is doing and receiving God’s abundant blessings!

MAY GOD BLESS OUR HEROS! MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA! 

Editor’s note: James Fasuekoi is an award-winning journalist, author, documentary writer and a news photographer. He previously covered wars and upheavals in West Africa for The Associated Press. He became a Bush Foundation Scholar twice in 2017; subpoenaed twice by the United States to testify in two major international Liberian War crimes trials: “United States of America vs. Mohammed Jabateh” (2017), & “United States of America vs. Thomas J. Woewiyu” (2018) held in Philadelphia. Read profile @ https://globalekklesia.com/profile/