As we go into this holiday weekend enjoy your friends and family, your burgers and hot dogs, ice cold beer and all of those sales. Have fun and relax a bit because all too often we forget to do that in our busy lives. I have no problem with people enjoying the extra time off for this day but, please do not forget the true meaning of this holiday.
Memorial day is not about supporting our Veterans or the troops currently serving. We have Veteran's Day for that and honestly, you should show your support daily if you ask me. It's not a day to thank the troops and their families serving worldwide who continue to make sacrifices everyday. This day is about remembering and honoring our fallen throughout history. It's about making sure that those who have gone before us and paid the ultimate price are not forgotten. As a society we must not allow our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, & Marines to have died in vane. It is up to each and every one of us to continue living free and making the tough choices and doing what is right in life. We all must take on the responsibility of teaching our children how to respect our freedoms and not trample on them as the cost was very dear. This is how we honor them.
Also, we must not forgot those Police, Fire and EMT workers who have died in the line of duty. These are truly some of the real unsung heroes in my eyes. They put their life on the line everyday to insure that we can go on living in a safe community, enjoying the freedoms that so many of those military members died to preserve.
I just ask that you take a second sometime this weekend and truly think about all we have. Put politics aside, forget about left or right. Forget about the bills, work or how high the damn grass is again. Relish the fact that you can have a cookout or go to the boardwalk or beach. But just, if for a short moment, cherish the fact that we live in a free society because of those who paid the price.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare— Ralph Waldo Emerson
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
I think collectively we do a good job respecting those who have sacrificed for our rights, but it is falling to the wayside with this new generation. Respect these days comes from a sense of entitlement and is skewed. Today if someone is your friend they are your nigga, and this is a form of endearment. The respect comes from not putting the "er" on the end of that word. We no longer remove our baseball caps in restaurants, and wear jeans in church. Police are often viewed as foes, and our rights have become less of a cherished expectation and more a sense of entitlement. Maybe on days like Memorial Day people will give pause and actually be quiet during the national anthem and respect the fact that we have not earned a sense of entitlement, but instead be grateful we have the rights and freedoms we do. Memorial Day is not just a day off school to have a BBQ and go to the beach. We are entitled to a day off, because it is a national holiday, but respect why we get to celebrate and not lose sight as to why and I think that's where this next generation falls short.
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