MAJ Jeffrey Toczylowski posthumously honors America, fellow troops, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and warfare against terrorist fanatics MAJ Jeffrey Toczylowski posthumously rebukes the actions and views of Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, and the rest of the don't-fight-fanatical-killers crowd.
First, a hat tip* to AllahPundit at HotAir.Com for bringing much needed, and much deserved, attention to MAJ Toczylowski's posthumous award to America. Second, everyone should visit the tribute site for MAJ Toczylowski at [http://www.jefftoz.com/]. Third, I offer my meager tribute at a time when the post-11-07-06 environment seems to be tipping towards a defeatist attitude regarding the most important struggle for the foreseeable future between forces of liberty and forces of medieval fanaticism.
It seems appropriate to begin this with words I previously wrote for Memorial Day:
We pause on this Memorial Day to join in this refrain
To those who gave their All for us so Freedom we'd retain
For Darkness they confronted in preserving Freedom's Light
We owe them more than we can pay, for giving more than Life
But Lives they gave endure today in hearts and souls and minds
Of we who drink from Freedom's Cup the Fruits of Freedom's Vine.
A video version of the above is at [http://PoliSat.Com/Memorial_Day.htm]. It also seems appropriate to quote words I wrote to honor our troops on the Fourth of July:
When Freedom's at Peace on a Fourth of July
then pure Celebration should blanket our skies.
But now while our soldiers are risking their lives,
and many so bravely for freedom have died,
we owe it to them on this Fourth of July
to show them our thanks for their noblest of lives.
So little they ask for so much that they give
so we may in freedom continue to live,
that more than just "thank you" to them we must give.
The "more" they would want is not "something" to give:
It's what's given best by our lives when we live
in ways to be worthy of all they did give.
The "everyman" Private named "Ryan" perceived
this insight returning to Normandy's beach
by posing a question whose asking does teach
the answer to what do we owe the deceased--
Asked Ryan, "Please tell me the life I did weave
has honored the gift that from them I received."
A video version of the above is at [http://PoliSat.Com/Fourth_Of_July.htm]. Finally, the words to a song ("Thanks in Our Name for Deeds in Our Name"**) I wrote are also appropriate for the memory of Maj. Toczylowski:
1
From farms in the country, from cities and towns,
from places quite humble, from places renowned,
from fact'tries, from stores and from offices tall,
from service professions, from shops in our malls,
come citizen soldiers our country to serve
as full-time professionals, guard or reserve.
2.
From mothers and fathers and husbands and wives
from children and lovers and friends in their lives
our citizen soldiers depart despite tears
on missions of danger in spite of their fears
as seflessly, proudly and bravely they serve
that freedom of conscience and Faith be preserved.
[Chorus]
To you who defend us, we proudly proclaim,
our pride in the deeds you have done in our name.
To citizen soldiers our humble refrain:
We thank you, we thank you for deeds in our name.
3.
In caves and in tunnels where murderers train
unspeakable terror they face in our name.
With principled discipline, training and skill
in taming the instinct to kill or be killed,
our citizen soldiers have honored our name,
so, proudly we thank them for deeds in our name.
4.
They serve in the skies and at sea and on land,
in mountains and jungles and deserts of sand,
on foot and in foxholes, in trenches and tents,
in tanks and on submarine mission descents,
in planes and on ships and on carrier decks,
in Humvees and hangars and convoys on treks.
[Chorus]
To you who defend us, we proudly proclaim,
our pride in the deeds you have done in our name.
To citizen soldiers our humble refrain:
We thank you, we thank you for deeds in our name.
5.
For risks to themselves they increase as they strive
to minimize dangers to innocent lives,
so we and posterity freedom retain,
unspeakable evil they face our name.
Our citizen solders have honored our name,
so thank them we must for their deeds in our name.
[Final Chorus]
To you who defend us, we proudly proclaim,
our pride in the deeds you have done in our name.
To citizen soldiers our humble refrain:
We thank you, we thank you for deeds in our name.
Bob Webster, Editor at WebCommentary, features a mini-video version of that song (for which the abbreviated title is "TION4DION") in the left-hand column here at WebCommentary.Com. A variety of size/connection-speed versions are at [http://PoliSat.Com/Thanks.htm].
In closing, I offer the following to the memory of "Jeff Toz":
Though you weren't a soldier in-person I'd known,
You stood with the best of the soldiers we've known.
Our posthumous thanks by tradition are given
To soldiers for lives that for freedom they've given,
But you stood above all your countrymen proud
To posthumously say of your country you're proud.
You've thus earned a place that's unique in our hearts:
A hero who's left us a posthumous heart.
For what must we strive to be worthy "in deed"?
The posthumous heart that from you we've received.
**Copyright 2005 Lyrics: James R. Wrenn, Jr.; Melody: Lindsey Smith, William D. Brown & James R. Wrenn, Jr; piano accompanyment; William D. Brown. Vocal (for "demo" version): Bradley S. Bennett.
Biography - Jim Wrenn
Jim is a proud descendant of 18th Century criminal exiles from England who swam to the Outer Banks when the British ship taking them to a Georgia penal colony sank in a storm near Cape Hatteras. Having the prescience to prevent their descendants from becoming "TarHeels," they immediately migrated to Virginia, where, within just a few generations they worked their way up into poverty. Jim's grandfather was the first in the family tree to see the distant horizons, but his career was cut short by severe injuries he sustained when a cousin cut down the tree.
After a brief stint in the Amry (ours) following graduation from law school, he began his legal career in the state bureaucracy but was never able to break into the federal bureaucracy. Several years later, he entered the private practice of law and co-founded a small law publishing company. Later, finding the publishing of small laws unstimulating and finding his private practice too private to be lucrative, he began writing political satire/commentary. His greatest vice is taking himself too seriously.
Although he regularly teaches Continuing Legal Education courses to lawyers, he's too-often available through he Rubber Chicken Speakers Bureau to speak on politics, satire, etc., at luncheons, dinners, root canals, funerals, etc. His speaking fees are so outrageously high they border on criminal price-gouging, but as a free-market advocate, he defends his fees on the higher moral ground of charging whatever the traffic will bear. For more information (surely more than one would want or need), go to www.PoliSat.Com.