Quote of the Day (Franklin Roosevelt, on Those Who Died to Win Our Freedom)

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32^nd President of the United States, “Bill of Rights Day Proclamation,” Dec. 15, 1941

In November 2013, I took the photo accompanying this post of a portion of the wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. As of May 2018, 58,320 names were listed there. 

The portion of the wall I’ve focused on here—Panel 25, Line 54—contains the name of Lt. William C. Ryan Jr. of Bogota, N.J., who went missing in action on May 11, 1969.

The remains of this Marine Corps pilot—who graduated from my alma mater, St. Cecilia High School of Englewood, NJ—were discovered and identified in Laos, and he was finally laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery two years ago.

Billy Ryan would have turned 75 years old last month. It is sobering to think that so much of the prime of his life was lost. God rest his soul, and let's pray that someday the world will reach a point when such extraordinary sacrifices no longer have to be made.