On this Memorial Day, Mike Barnicle’s latest column for The Daily Beast suggests cutting through the toxicity clogging our collective culture to remember those who died giving back to our country, including his own uncle – the one he never knew – Lt. Gerald J. Barnicle: “Killed in action… Battle of Midway… Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.” Barnicle writes: “When you look away from the daily dump of false promises, fake empathy and foolish rhetoric of Trump and Clinton, when you put your phone down and stop staring at the screen, when you pause—actually take the time—to stop, think and remember who we are, still, and have been, always, you cannot help feel a slight sense of optimism as well as an obligation to those who flew off over the Pacific, landed on Okinawa or Omaha Beach, walked out of the Chosin Reservoir, hunkered down at Khe Sanh and Hue City, went door to door in Fallujah or encountered life and death in Helmand Province. We remain the greatest beacon of hope and freedom of expression the world has ever known.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/30/america-is-still-a-gift-to-the-world.html
