lest we forget

Fifty percent of Americans consider Memorial Day as one of the nation’s most important holidays.

So says the Rasmussen Reports, a survey service.  The type of service that causes political operatives to have sleepless nights.

The number is not surprising.  For the past decade, the American public has had a very high opinion of the men and women who provide security for us. 

Especially those who have sacrificed their lives to defend our liberty.

That is what today is about.  To memorialize those who have died that we may be free.

I do not have any family members or friends who died in the service of liberty.  But I know the stories of those who did.

Young people who gave up promising futures in carers that would have paid far more than a soldier's pay.  Who gave up the opportunity to have a stable family life.  Who gave up a life that was self-centered.

And they all had their own reasons for making that choice. 

But they each chose to live in a profession where old, solid virtues were -- and are -- part of their daily lives:.  Duty.  Honor.  Country.

An old soldier once said of those three words: "They build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid."

I was recently talking with a friend who freely admitted he could not understand the sacrifice necessary to be  soldier.  He wanted to know why the government did not provide soldiers with equipment that would prevent the death of our troops.

He is not alone.  There have long been Americans who could not understand why a person would freely give up the luxuries of American civilian life to serve in he military. 


I told my friend that my colleagues in he military do not feel as if they have given up anything.  They have traded their individual freedom for the good of what this nation stands for.

In the process, they also have made a bargain that their lives now belong to the defense of freedom.

Fortunately, most of them live full lives of honor.  But some are called to pay the price.  The price that freedom is not free.

As we go about or lives today, we should pause (if only for a moment) to recall -- to memorialize -- those who have died for us.  Deaths that allow us to lead the lives we live today.

Without their sacrifice, ours would be a far more brutish world.

To all of the men and women who have died in the service of their country.  I say thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.