Memorial Day is here once again – a time when we expect the sun to shine on us and our family barbecues. Now we can get together and get down to some serious frenzy eating. Cemeteries across the land are prepared for what will be an onslaught of visitors dressed in their finest with flowers for their departed loved ones. The singing birds will bring out their best show tunes at the delight of people who will no doubt listen. Boats will be cleaned off of winter debris and pulled to the nearest favorite fishing hole. No matter where you go, you are liable to gain five pounds just by the smell of cheeseburgers in the air. All over this great land golf courses are standing room only, store sales pop up like daises, and rivers and lakes are polluted with people enjoying the fruits of their labors. It is, of course, Memorial Day, a three day weekend to enjoy life and the freedom to do what we want, isn’t it? Sure it is; we have worked for it, and we deserve it, right? Yet, we live in a land now where it isn’t proper to display the American flag and be proud of our heritage and of those who have died defending our rights and privileges for fear of hurting someone’s feelings or their beliefs. Our own people turn our flag into a torch and call it freedom of speech. Some drag it in the mud and the dirt and stomp on it and say it is their right; they can do what they want because this is America. Our own high courts and lawmakers uphold these actions and laws are made to protect those who seemingly hate what this country stands for. Yet they live, work (sometimes) and have the opportunity to live a free life in a country that so many have sacrificed and died for. We live in a land where the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem are just a poem and a song that are becoming cliché in many parts of the country, and how dare we put our hands to our heart because it’s embarrassing. Thank goodness for those who raised the flag on many forgotten islands and hill tops, who were proud to watch a tattered flag wave in the smoke after a battle, who could look back and see many of their friends who now lie on a mud soaked hill or on a beach or a desert. Did they give up their lives so that the generations to come can be free to do whatever they want? No. With the freedom they died to give us comes responsibility, the responsibility of law makers, parents, teachers, and leaders that the abuse of our freedom is met with equal retaliation. We are a freeborn people and one of the greatest opportunities of a free people is to pass on that freedom to our children. However, with history being pushed out of classrooms and the home, the threat of losing touch with what made this country great is mounting. There are people who still remember the sacrifices of those who dot the cemeteries all over this land and in cemeteries abroad who never returned and never will. There are still Americans who will stand for the flag and the Constitution, who are proud to stand up, who are still dying for their country and the people back at home. Our freedoms have been relentlessly pursued and will always be until freedom is abused to the point that there is no foundation of the human life forfeited for it. The fact is many soldiers in the field stood in the face of the enemy and said, “Over my dead body!” and charged into a hail of gun fire going toe to toe at the price of their life. It is a duty for us who remain in our safe world to remember those who died, not just to place a flag at their grave, walk off and believe you did your part. These men and women became our brothers and sisters, our kindred spirit, family. They are a part of all of us because of their great sacrifice and the love they had for you and me and this country, and we must remember it is our duty to them. So, this Memorial Day, take the time while enjoying the weekend to remember that without the sacrifice of so many, this country would be a lot different. As Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
