Americans conduct our lives in remarkable freedom and in accordance with our individual beliefs. Such profound blessings owe much to the sacrifices of those who’ve died while in the service of the United States military.
This Memorial Day weekend, we should remember that tremendous gift delivered through the ages on our behalf. We should recall, and reflect upon, the travail of those who have perished in uniform while bearing this nation’s duties.
America’s military dead have paid the highest possible earthly cost for the freedoms we collectively enjoy – and too often take for granted.
We cannot forget that. There’s a tendency across this still-young land to make memories a fleeting thing. We’re Americans after all — always moving, on to the next thing large or small, climbing the next hill and so on. But we should not forget our noble war dead, nor those veterans who yet live.
For at least a moment, Georgians and all Americans should pause from our rush and bustle to remember those who’ve died – and, sadly, continue to die – in the service of this great country. It would be an admirable goal for this entire nation to fall conspicuously silent at 3 p.m. local time Monday during the National Moment of Remembrance. A few seconds of quiet contemplation would powerfully underscore that we indeed understand the tremendous cost paid across the centuries to keep America strong and free.
In truth, it will always be appropriate to remember our nation’s fallen soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. They should not begin to recede from memory because the long-running war in Iraq has now ended. America’s military personnel remain on guard and on duty around the world, each paying a personal cost to sustain the ideals we’ve held dear since this country was born.
Maintaining our freedoms will continue to exact a cost in honorable human blood, suffering and death. That sacrifice is voluntarily borne by Americans taking their turn in uniform. That we cannot forget. The ranks of those who’ve stepped up and into harm’s way stretches from the Middle East of today down the trail of time to the battlefields of the Revolutionary War.
Yet this payment book still has coupons remaining. America’s servicepeople are still engaged in battle on the rocky slopes of Afghanistan, fighting a deadly, stealthy enemy fueled by zealotry.
Georgians have more than held up their end in the ongoing fight that began after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Nearly 800 members of the Georgia National Guard are currently assigned to Operation Enduring Freedom as part of the Afghanistan campaign. Keep them in your prayers.
Also lift up in your thoughts the families of the 202 soldiers who called Georgia home who have died in uniform during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to a Washington Post website tally of casualties. That’s more than enough souls to fill a good-sized jetliner.
Other soldiers have perished too, those not born here but who were assigned to military units based in Georgia.
This will be a hard weekend for all of their families. Take them into your midst if you can. Let them know you appreciate the maximum sacrifice selflessly made by their loved one. Offer a word of encouragement. At the least, remember them.
That should be easy for all of us to do in this land that continues to live free, going about the normal loud, often-discordant work of a representative democracy. Ours remains a unique experiment in the history of the world. It’s remained in place across four centuries in large part because of those who were willing to take up arms to defend the American Way.
In the midst of this weekend’s holiday revelry, we should not forget that.
