That beautiful essayist and perennial warrior, Mark Helprin, he who was Bob Dole’s speech writer for about 30 seconds because he can’t be moderate, has a message for all of us in the news today, “On Memorial Day” (WSJ, May 29, 2010, p. A13).

Helprin’s message is a solemn call for the respect and honor a nation owes to its fallen heroes, heroes, without which, our great nation would never have been born and likely would not have survived.

In a week, that began with Obama contemplating lifting the ban on gays in the military and which he plans to end by avoiding the traditional ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary, we should think seriously about what it means to respect our military, past and present,

Per my son, who is on active duty with the Georgia National Guard, the issue of gays in the military is more a matter of logistics. Traditionally, military men are lodged together. Openly gay men and women would have to be lodged separately from the rest of the corps. That would not only change the military, in terms of military cohesion, but it would be an added expense.

However, one suspects, the issue is important to the President as a wedge to drive the nation toward a national gay rights legislation. Although there is huge resistance to the this notion, gay activists want us to think of their agenda as the new civil rights movement. The differences seem stark, but not to those determined to wrest respect for their lifestyle from a suspicious heterosexual majority.

However, the point is this: President Obama is less interested in providing leadership and support for a military that is devoted to defending the country, than he is in pushing his social agenda.

For me, for my 90 year old WWII Veteran father, for my bootstrap son, former Captain Bill Price and my deployed son, Sgt. Rick Price, and for many millions of Americans, the issue is a huge distraction from the very serious work of the military. A great nation does not play games with its defenses.

This Memorial Day, let us resolve to respect our fallen heroes, those who are serving heroically today and our future heroes by allowing them to do what is best for our country. Let’s let the military run its own day to day operations, and concentrate on providing a Constitutional Republic for it to defend.