A Permanent Peaceful World

Both of my grandparents served to defend our freedoms in World War II. I do not have a lot of information about their experiences, but I give thanks today for their service and for that of so many others who have sacrificed to defend the freedoms we so often take for granted now. My paternal grandfather enlisted at the age of 17 and served for three years in the United States Navy Seabees in the Construction Battalion. He spent time in Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. In 1943 my maternal grandfather was drafted into the war and soon thereafter headed off on a ship to the Philippines. When the war ended, he was among the first soldiers to be sent into Japan to occupy it. He was still there on Easter in 1946, and he penned these words and sent them home to his family at that time: 

In distant lands and on home shores

As spring breaks forth we humbly pause

To offer thanks to all those who give

Their lives for freedom’s cause. 

For with war’s raging battle gone

And morbid scenes of bloody strife

There comes this Eastertide of Peace

A promise for a better life. 

May this glorious Easter be a symbol

Clear to us unfurled,

Whereby we start to live anew

And build a permanent peaceful world. 

This Memorial Day, surely that is the hope of all of us as we remember those who have fallen and those who have fought to bring peace the world.

                When the Nephites fought to defend their freedoms against the Lamanites under Zerahmenah, Captain Moroni inspired his men to focus on those things they were fighting for. As they began to overpower their enemies, Moroni stopped the fighting and offered the Lamanites a chance to make a covenant of peace to save their lives. I love his words that describe what they were fighting to defend: “And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us—Yea, and this is not all; I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way and come not again to war against us” (Alma 44:5-6). Surely those are the same sacred things that my grandparents fought for and so many others still do today: our faith in God, our rites of worship, our wives and children, and the sacred word of God that led to the founding of this country and inspires us to preserve its freedoms still today. As war rages in many parts of the world still today in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Somalia, Afghanistan, and other places, I give thanks for the bounteous blessings that we enjoy in the United States of America. The Constitution that preserves it was raised up not just to bless those of us in this country but “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77). We seek to maintain it today and preserve the freedoms it offers so that all may likewise become free. And we always hope, with my grandfather, that as we defend its principles we might get closer towards the dream of “a permanent peaceful world.”