MEMORIAL DAY.
a couple times a month on this blog, i run a segment called “cool dudes i admire”— most of them, war heroes. there’s something intrinsic, at least for me, about man’s gratitude for those who came before him. congress first recognized memorial day as a national holiday in 1971, but it’s roots date all the way back to the civil war. the origins are often argued— did it start in waterloo, NY? or Charleston, SC? columbus, MI? there are somewhere around 20 places that claim to be the birthplace of the holiday, yet today, we all celebrate it.
the birthplace argument fascinates me because i think it proves my theory that we hold intrinsic gratitude for the sacrifices man has made for freedom— it doesn’t matter where it started, but what matters is that we all started it. the black folks in charleston hosted parades, sang songs, and erected memorials around the graves of dead union soldiers. women in columbus decorated the graves of confederate SOLDIERS who perished in battle. waterloo honored their dead by closing BUSINESSES and lowering their flags at half-staff— there was something natural about our desire to honor our dead, specifically those who gave their lives for a cause much greater than their own.
one of REAGAN'S greatest lines encapsulates the very core of american culture:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
i’d encourage you to visit a war memorial this weekend— visit a cemetery, even if you don’t know anybody buried there. let’s not forget the sacrifices that ABSOLUTE strangers have made to defend, preserve, and protect the shared PRIVILEGE that we bask in daily. we must ensure that freedom does not perish from this earth and that their sacrifice was not for nothing.
remember that liberty comes with a cost.
