We have just finished watching the National Memorial Day Concert at our house. We watch it every year. The music and dramatic readings are helpful for me to think about what Memorial Day means. Ronald Reagan once said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” That is what Memorial Day is about. It’s not about those who died; they are already receiving their reward for their act of selflessness. It’s about us; the ones for whom they died. It’s about us remembering and honoring their sacrifice, saying their names, thanking their families. Those who gave their lives can’t see the concerts, tributes, ceremonies, and services; we do those things to remind ourselves that the freedoms we enjoy every day of our lives didn’t come because a bureaucrat signed a paper in an office. Our freedoms were earned on bloody battlefields, many times over.
Sometimes I think we get complacent. We get so wrapped up in our lives and the minor inconveniences of them that we forget that we live in an amazing country. There are so many times in history when it could have gone differently. There are so many times when the road may not have led to more freedom for more people. The sacrifices of those who rest beneath simple white headstones gained and preserved freedom, liberty, and justice for us, and for others around the world.
It is easy to find hope on Memorial Day. God has blessed our nation with selfless men and women who loved their country, who loved liberty, more than themselves and whose sacrifice has assured the spread and preservation of freedom. I will never know what they experienced; I will never understand the horrors they have witnessed, and for that I thank each and every one of them.