This day is not about pool openings, working on your tan or going to the huge white sale at the local mall. Memorial Day is for remembering the men and women who died while in the service of the United States Armed Forces.
According to some sources, there have been over 1.3 million American Military members who have died for their country in conflicts or wars since our very first, the American Revolution. 1.3 million is not a number we should shrug off, but most of us do. These are 1.3 million lives that were lost for a whole host of reasons. Not all of the reasons we can agree on, but that should not detract one iota from the respect, honor and deep sense of thankfulness I believe we should feel on this day. The lives of every one of these men and women were spent in defense of their country and their honor lies in giving the greatest sacrifice anyone can and that is to lose your life in defense of another.
Why should you care that someone you never knew died in a country you will never go to, in order to fight a war you don’t believe in? You should care because these are humans that cared enough for their country and their fellow humans to lay their life on the line. They have sacrificed where you have not. Their commitment has touched others’ lives that you may not have even considered. These are sons, fathers, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters to people who have lost. They deserve our respect and honor for their sacrifice and I for one will take some time today to reflect on the lives that have been lost and remember them for their duty, their courage and their willingness to fight for something they believe.
On Memorial Day I and others will raise a flag outside our homes, perhaps go to a military cemetery and walk the rows of tombstones that mark the small patches of earth reserved for the precious remains of the ones we have known and loved but for whom reside now in a different place I believe. Even if you go nowhere on this Memorial Day, I hope you take some of your day and thank with your heart the men and women who have died, share a sense of loss with their families however foreign to you and accept gladly the gift they have given us all with their lives.