Memorial Day - A Time of Remembering, Lest We Forget...Lest We Forget

On Memorial Day many of us will look upon the gravestones of our brave countrymen who fought and died for America.  They loved this land of freedom and opportunity, and we owe them a debt of gratitude which we can never repay.  We must learn about the meaning of those stones, lest the memory of those who lie beneath them be forgotten, and their deaths be in vain. 

They were Americans and they came from all over our nation:  the north, the south, the east and the west, to answer their country's call.  They were the rich and the poor of every color; they were from the farmlands and the cities; they were the scholars and the factory workers from all sorts of different ethnic backgrounds; but they were all Americans. And they were prepared to defend our freedom.  They stood for America, where a man could be a man - where he could hold his head up and walk shoulder to shoulder with every other man, without having to grovel and cower before tyrants.  America!  The place where the circumstances of one's birth do not dictate the course for one's life, and where a man could choose his own destiny.  With his God-given ability and his own hard work, he could make his dreams come true.  America has always been the place where dreams can come true!  We even call it the "American Dream!"

You and I can still dream the dream only because of the sacrifices of those beneath those somber gravestones.  Do we remember that freedom is not free - that there is a very high cost for our freedom?  Can we show our gratitude by living for the ideals for which our patriots fought and died?  We can honor their memory by lifting high the torch of freedom, the sacred fire of liberty, and passing it on to future generations, lest we forget...lest we forget.