Memorial Day is set aside for us all to remember those who gave what President Abraham Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion” to their state and nation. and it is fitting we all take time, if even for a moment, to reflect on those who gave all for freedom.
What the day means can be best summed up by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he expressed the thanks of his nation for those who fought during the Battle of Britain.
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
His words could also be about all of those who fought and died on the numerous battlefields over the decades where the blood of Americans was spilled.
Since the end of World War II, the nation has been embroiled in numerous conflicts, and the toll of the dead has climbed with each new conflict.
Yet we must remember that the deaths of those in battle are part of our heritage. and their sacrifice was, in a real way, a down payment on our freedom and our democracy.
Men and women willingly chose to serve our nation and many of them did give the last full measure for those of us who remained at home.
Those sacrifices, though, are important because of the reasonability it delivers to the rest of us. Our fallen delivered to each of us an obligation to ensure our democracy remains vibrant, that their sacrifice was, indeed, worth it.
Freedom, our freedom, comes with a table of contents, a set of requirements that means we do what we can to give back to our communities, our state and our nation. It means we try to preserve our democracy, despite its flaws, despite its almost front-loaded decisiveness. It means we look upon those who gave their lives for our nation with respect and honor on a day like today but also take heed that their sacrifice cannot be forgotten or ignored.
Memorial Day is a great time for reflection, a day to remember, but most of all it is a period when we are reminded of our responsibility to live up to the ideals so many died for on foreign battlefields.
Those ideals — freedom of the press, of religion, of basic rights under the law — must be guarded and coveted.
Our nation must remember those brave men and women who gave their lives with awe and respect and with the hope we do not tarnish their legacy.
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