Relax, remember, reflect this holiday weekend

The holiday, “Labor Day,” is easy to have fun with. Although I have ancestors who decidedly benefited from the collective labor movement, I have more recently known it to be a drag on our economy. Not so with Memorial Day. Yes, On one holiday, you put your white shoes in, then on the next, you pull your white shoes out. It’s the three-day weekend hokey pokey but I take Memorial Day more seriously.

In the American Revolution, 6,800 patriots died in battle for a cause that was not yet proven. It was a sacrifice based on faith alone. A staggering 17 thousand succumbed to starvation, exposure and disease in support of the same cause.

In the War of 1812, it’s estimated that between battle and disease, 15,000 lives were lost. In the first World War (it wasn’t called that until there was a second), 117,000 US troops gave their lives, 131,000 American lives were lost in the European and Asian theaters during the Second World War. In Afghanistan, we have had approximately 2,400 deaths and we lost a few more in the second invasion of Iraq.

There are 58,000 names on the Vietnam monument, the conflict in which my father served. It’s the conflict that got me shipped all over the world. I didn’t serve, but I still take that one personally.

It’s a cheap, half-brained cliché to say that freedom isn’t free, but Memorial Day is much more than whipping out our white shoes from the back of the closet. Some good people went before us to protect us from being a permanent colony of King George. We helped others from being the colonies of the Soviet Union, and I fear that we will need more of our sons and daughters to shield us from the meticulous, persistent, calculated of Xi.

Enjoy your Memorial Day. Relax and eat hot dogs, but please appreciate those who went before you.