Many of us think of Memorial Day as a time for family and the beginning of vacation season. However, in and amongst the Holiday festivities, I ask that we pause to reflect upon and share with our younger family members the true reason for the holiday.

Memorial Day 

We gather this Memorial Day not simply to enjoy the beginning of summer, not merely to participate in a community tradition, but to remember those who can’t be with us today. We pause as a nation and as a community to honor the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who gave their lives in service to our country.

Memorial Day is one of the most sacred observances in the American tradition because it asks something important of us. It asks us to remember people we may never have known. It asks us to reflect on sacrifices most of us will never be asked to make. And it reminds us that the freedoms we enjoy every day were not freely given. They were purchased through courage, service, sacrifice, and loss.

The origins of Memorial Day trace back to the years following the Civil War, a conflict that claimed more American lives than any other war in our history. 

Over time, that remembrance expanded to honor the 1.2 million American service members who died in all wars — from the fields of Gettysburg to the beaches of Normandy, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, and countless places in between.

Today we remember not simply names etched on monuments but lives interrupted.

We remember young men who never returned home to marry, raise families, or grow old. We remember daughters and sons who answered the call to serve, knowing full well the risks involved. We remember parents who received folded flags instead of homecomings. We remember families whose empty chair at the dinner table became a permanent reminder of sacrifice.

And while Memorial Day is about those who died in service, it is also about the values for which they stood.

Freedom. Duty. Honor. Commitment to something larger than oneself.

It is easy in our busy lives to take freedom for granted. We wake up each morning able to speak freely, worship freely, vote freely, gather freely, and pursue our dreams because generations before us defended those rights — often at extraordinary cost.

Many who served were ordinary people. They came from small towns and large cities. They were teachers, mechanics, students, farmers, factory workers, and neighbors. They did not see themselves as heroes. Yet when history called, they stepped forward.

Why?

Because they believed some things were worth protecting.

They believed liberty mattered.

They believed future generations deserved opportunity.

And they believed America — though imperfect — was worthy of sacrifice.

As we stand here today beneath this flag, we should remember that the flag represents lives willingly placed in harm’s way so that others could live in peace.

That reality should inspire gratitude, but it should also inspire responsibility.

The greatest way we honor the fallen is not only through ceremonies like this one, important as they are. We honor them by living lives worthy of their sacrifice. We honor them by treating one another with respect, by strengthening our communities, by protecting the freedoms entrusted to us, and by remembering that citizenship carries responsibilities as well as rights.

For younger generations especially, Memorial Day should serve as a reminder that freedom is never guaranteed. Every generation inherits it, but every generation must also protect it.

Today, let us also remember the families of the fallen — the spouses, parents, children, siblings, and friends who carried burdens long after the guns fell silent. Their sacrifice did not end on the battlefield. Memorial Day belongs to them as well.

In just a few moments, we will continue this ceremony of remembrance. As we do, I ask each of us to pause quietly and reflect on the true meaning of this day.

Remember those who gave the full measure.

Remember the cost of freedom.

Remember that our nation’s story has been written by countless acts of courage, many by people whose names history may never fully know.

And remember that because they served — and because they sacrificed — we are able to stand here today in peace and freedom.

May we never forget them.

 

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