My first SJ post about Memorial Day was in 2007. The idea that someday Trump, or someone like Trump, would be president was unthinkable. “The Donald,” as he was then jokingly called, was the caricature of a dishonorable vulgar narcissist, the sort of person who could never be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
Back then, quaint notions like honor, integrity and liberty, still mattered. People didn’t contort themselves to make excuses for lies. People didn’t fabricate excuses for open and notorious corruption. People didn’t pretend this was only a nation for white Christians, and everybody else should go “back where they came from.”
While these are things I think about regularly, they ring special on Memorial Day as I, and hopefully we, remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Despite my apparent cynicism, Memorial Day has always meant something to me. Having grown up in the house of a WWII combat veteran, Purple Heart and Bronze Star, I was reared on the stories of pain, sacrifice and honor in the name of our country. A bit jingoistic, perhaps, but when honor comes at the price of a human life, it is something worthy of our remembrance.
The catch phrase today is that freedom is not free. But what is this freedom that is worthy of fighting, and dying, for? To show our respect for those who gave their lives for freedom, those of us who remain should be willing to stand up for that freedom and defend it. We don’t fight for a particular President. We don’t fight for a political party. We don’t fight for some transitory policy. We fight for enduring freedom. Don’t give up the fight. Take a moment today to think about it. Others have given their lives for it. It’s not much to do.
Looking back on what I wrote in 2007, it is striking how relevant it remains today. Even more striking is how far we’ve strayed from these quaint notions. Make honor great again. Make integrity great again. Reject lies and corruption. Refuse to make excuses when liberty is denied to some, regardless of whether they are black or white, male or female, straight or gay.
The men and women who fought and died for a nation that once stood as a beacon of freedom in the world should not have died in vain. Honor their memory.