Memorial day – Whom do you want to remember?

Having a holiday to take time off or having a cookout with family or neighbors is special. But it’s also important to remember that Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor those who gave their lives for freedom. I think about this a lot. I’ve never signed up to risk my life for anyone or anything. Yet, I take it for granted that other people have and still do.

While many wars have been for all the wrong reasons, I sometimes wonder what life would be like without those heroes who fought for our freedom.

I recently visited the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. I’d learned about American history in school, but this current up close and personal experience took my appreciation to an entirely new level. Seeing the same flag witnessed by Sir Francis Scott when he wrote the Star-Spangled Banner during the bombing of Ft. McKinley in 1814, sent me back in time. Feeling the bravery of people who were in battle on land and sea, fighting to their death was a heady experience.

I was deeply moved while looking at the many broken treaties between the United States and the Native Americans who made settlers’ survival possible by teaching them how to farm and hunt. And how later, the entire native race was almost completely wiped out by the new America they’d helped.

I’d like to think we’d evolved a little after such atrocities and that’s why some gave their lives during the Civil War to free slaves. Many Americans died fighting for other people’s freedom.

War has happened throughout our lives. There are people still fighting in the name of liberty or death.

I want to remember the heroes who fought for freedom, not the cowards who obstructed it.

We are a country of many nations, living together. We must treasure one another and our ability to live side by side instead of seeing ourselves as different, separate, and apart lest we repeat the past.

Maybe you have a relative or friend that has served to protect your freedom. Memorial Day is a good time to remember how fragile life is, and how precious freedom is, and take a moment to give thanks to all our predecessor’s contributions. Without them, we wouldn’t be here to enjoy the lives we have.

Memorial Day is the best day to give tribute to all heroes. Including those near and dear to us. There are heroes all around us, including people who donate money, goods, time, and even body organs to save lives. Some people never stop giving and are always there to help others.

Maybe they didn’t serve in the military, but they sacrificed something so that someone else could accomplish what they couldn’t without a guardian angel.

Who’s the hero in your life? Maybe someone protected you or stepped up to help you when you were down and out. Without that person, how would your life be different?

During this holiday let us take a few moments to be grateful for the heroes in our lives. Also, you can be someone else’s hero. You don’t have to be a freedom fighter or memorialized; you can simply do an act of kindness that can change someone else’s world for the better. The highest honor we can give to those who served us is to pay it forward. Then every day can be a time to remember how we’ve been saved by our heroes, and how we gave back to our fellow man.

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