Honoring Service and Sacrifice

In 1868, the founder of Memorial Day said, “Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

On Monday, we will pay our respect as a nation to American soldiers who gave their lives to advance freedom.  We honor their memory.  We comfort their family members who have survived their loss. 

It’s almost ironic that for most of us, Memorial Day weekend is so carefree.  We celebrate with cookouts and family gatherings and kick off the summer months.  These luxuries and the peaceful lives we enjoy would not be ours without the sacrifices of military men and women.

The courage and commitment of those who defend America, and all that it stands for as the leader of the free world, give us so much.  Without our freedoms, we might not be able to assemble freely, or worship wherever we want.  We wouldn’t have equal protection of life, liberty, and property under the law, regardless of our skin color.  We wouldn’t be able to mark Memorial Day any way we want, including protesting the military actions of our government.  Soldiers give their lives to protect even the freedom to denounce the policies that lead to war.

This service and sacrifice is the price of freedom.  And it’s a price millions of Americans have paid over our 235-year history.  Freedom is invaluable and worth the risk to life and limb.  Without the sacrifices of our military men and women, we wouldn’t have media outlets that can criticize the President, or Congress, and the public scrutiny that helps to make our democracy stronger.  We wouldn’t have an open marketplace with stores competing to offer consumers better deals and products, and creating jobs in the process.   Without the sacrifices of our military men and women, maybe the government would control our economy, as governments do in dictatorial countries.

Sometimes the best way to appreciate freedom is to look at countries that don’t have it.  The world still has dictators who kill their political enemies and control their nation’s wealth at the expense of their own people.  They shut out everyone but their cronies, leaving people with no way to feed their families.  They incite one ethnic group to act violently against another and sponsor terrorism, or lack the resources to fight it.

When people can’t earn a living, worship freely, or walk down the street without fear, they are not free.  America was built on that principle.   Our forebears immigrated here.  Their descendants formed a new democracy.  They fought to preserve it.  Once they established our democracy, they began the tradition of helping to protect freedom worldwide.  When people of the world suffer, Americans suffer, too.  We fight to liberate others from oppression.  It’s the American way.  And it’s led to millions of people in dozens of countries enjoying a better life than before.  In the last 100 years alone, American troops have fought for freedom all over:  in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf,  Afghanistan and Iraq, and more.

Likewise, across the Middle East and North Africa, we’ve seen oppressed peoples rise up and oppose their tyrannical governments, demanding freedom, democracy and respect for basic human rights.  It started in Tunisia, when a 26-year-old street vendor, fed up with the repression and mistreatment at the hands of his government, triggered riots and uprisings following his self-immolation.   Those uprisings spread from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, among others.   Across the region, young and old alike are protesting the repression.  The United States stands with the demonstrators as they seek to exercise universal rights and pursue peaceful democratic change.  The United States will always support the aspirations of people seeking freedom and democracy. 

The greatest American value and virtue is freedom.   The men and women who have given their lives to safeguard this principle deserve our eternal gratitude this weekend, on Memorial Day, and every other day of the year.