A Time to Remember

The Sun is shining, the grass is green, the temperature is just right, the birds are chirping, and gas prices are higher than ever.  It must be Memorial Day Weekend.  Garage Sale signs are out, boats are loaded, beaches are full.  Barbeque pits are lit and the smells of the meal to come fill the house.  Children running around the yard playing games while their parents sit and talk about growing up, high prices, and government scandals.  The roads are filled with traffic, the parks are teeming with family outings.

The white tombstones lay in a straight line, row by row, as far as the eye can see.  Captains, Sergeants, Privates, Pilots, Yeomans all laying still.  Killed in action in a foreign land and now home to lay in eternal rest. Some are fresh high school graduates.  Others are career military persons.  They have served on ships, in the air, under the sea, and on the land.  They come from every state in the union.  some even fought to preserve the union.  Others fought to make our country possible.  They were sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends.  They endured the pain of war.  Some came home without arms or legs.  Others came with nightmares and memories that control their present day.  Yet, they do not stop enlisting, going, and coming back wounded, maimed, alive or dead.  They wore uniforms of blue or green.  Some wore white.  They freed cities and peoples.  They protected us and our freedoms.

This is the time to remember Dan, Rob, Scooter, Sam, John, Peter, Paul, Mary, Susan and Sally who left us behind to take up arms and face death to defend the land we call home.  They make it possible for the stars and stripes to wave over the land of the free and the brave.  In fact, these brave men and women made this day possible.  They paid the price so we can live where we want, buy what we want, say what we want, and worship who and where we want.  They fought for the rights we enjoy and for the freedoms we hold so dear.

They came from farms and cities.  They were educated and uneducated.  They banded together as one to give us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

Let us stop and remember them on this Memorial Day Weekend.  If we know someone who is alive and a veteran, let us thank them for their service.  If we know those who have died defending us, let us give thanks for them and pray for the families who miss them.