A Month of Cleansing #10 (War & A Letter)

While watching Saving Private Ryan, i cannot help but to look at war with a loss of words and a complete absence of understanding. Well, i can't say that with entire truth. I understand that there are some things worth fighting for, and there are some things worth dying for. But, at the same time that i can aknowledge the necessity for battle, and i realize World War II was certainly fought for a righteous cause, i still weep at the loss of life that some freedoms require. To think that there are, and will continue to be, people that clutch selfish, ignorant ends so tightly that others must give their lives to pry them away is overwhelming.

There's a letter that a General reads to some men under him who feel the Private Ryan mission is a foolish waste of resources. It has a way of addressing the necessity of life to protect certain ways of life as well as the incredible loss that war brings. It's also written in a way that i'm sorry we don't write anymore. It was a letter written to a Mrs. Bixby in Boston.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the war department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine that would attempt to beguile you from the grielf of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln