The fallen

Their ghosts can’t say to the king, “We’re sorry; we fought for freedom and deposed you. Even though another tyrant took your place, our lives, our deaths, have not been in vain.” They remain, in spirit, free; their hope survives. Defiance grows from their bleached bones, magnified by their sacrifice. Like Christ, they have died for freedom, just not for you. They haven’t died to justify another war to preserve another rotten dictator. They haven’t died for political convenience. They will always have a place in a free republic and remind us not to bow to emperors or to listen to their grovelers and PR sycophants.