Memorial Day Relativity

Simply, Memorial Day is about remembering the ultimate sacrifices of our men and women in military service.

Memorial Day is not about using their memory to hash out current or past political disagreements about why and how.

Yet, that is what is happening, under the guise of remembering.

That dishonors those who lost their lives in service and those who served, and allowed to pass dishonors all who may serve as well as all Americans.

Memorial Day is not about us, our own personal aspirations, our courage, our ambivalencies, our agendas. Memorial Day is about humbly and regretfully honoring the loss of the personal aspirations, courage, ambivalencies, agendas of those fallen.

To turn Memorial Day into anything else is to trivialize that loss. To turn Memorial Day into about us instead of them is to place more importance upon ourselves than them.

Those who served or serve never refer to themselves as heroes or martyrs. Those who served or serve made a simple choice, indeed a difficult choice, that serving – with all its sacrifices and mortal conundrums – was for a greater moral purpose than their own comforts.

Those who served or serve recognized priorities above self or personal advantage.

Shouldn’t we?