Yesterday, Dan Collins asked his fellow guest-posters (and others) to declaim what their freedom means to them. But Dan’s post—and BRD’s today—both mention the sacrifice of our troops, past and present. Rightly so. Our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are ultimately secured by those among us who sacrifice the exercise of those rights—and none moreso than those we honor on Memorial Day.
To be sure, some of our heroes are better known than others. Some of the fallen will be remembered by their families and comrades, and known only to those who may read about them on the Internet. And because DNA technology is relatively new, some will be remembered only as the Unknowns.
But they are remembered, and not just today.
Moreover, we remember them to give thanks for their bravery and spirit, not to treat them as victims—which may be why the one or two examples of attempts to politicize Memorial Day clang with such dissonance. As Peter Collier put it at one of the links above:
We impoverish ourselves by shunting these heroes and their experiences to the back pages of our national consciousness. Their stories are not just boys’ adventure tales writ large. They are a kind of moral instruction. They remind of something we’ve heard many times before but is worth repeating on a wartime Memorial Day when we’re uncertain about what we celebrate. We’re the land of the free for one reason only: We’re also the home of the brave.
Thank you, Karl. That is lapidary, hence perfectly fit for today.
I do not believe that it is easier to be brave, necessarily, just because you have more to be brave for. But ingratitude is, in the long run, the gravest of sins, because it suggests that you haven’t any understanding of your privilege, which has been paid for through the struggle of generations untold, even before we arrived here, even before we were what we are, even before we could enuncitate it.
And without all that sacrifice, and without all that made it necessary, we would be naught.