Eleanor Roosevelt knew war intimately. She walked upon the bloated, unburied bodies of soldiers slaughtered in World War I. She flew in uninsulated military aircraft through combat airspace to Guam, the Philippines and 13 other islands to visit American troops. She walked hundreds of miles in hospital corridors, worked in emergency rooms and ate with the troops. During this time she began to carry a prayer that would stay with her for the rest of her life.

Dear Lord,

Lest I continue
My complacent way,
Help me to remember that somewhere,
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war,
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?

From Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1971), 654.

This weekend say a prayer, raise a toast and remember the sacrifices of our fallen heroes, and the families who will always love them.

KTP