Memorial Day is For Remembering

So by now I'm sure many of you are out there enjoying your burgers and beer, seeing friends and family and turning up the radio or firing up the boat (wish I had one!). But, please, take a few moments out of your day to remember the reason you are off work and celebrating... in fact, remember the reason that you wake up every single day to a life where you are not oppressed, where you can go to any job you want, where your kids can hop on the bus and go to school where they can sing in the choir or play football to their hearts' content, where you can go to any church your heart desires, where you can call into a radio station or write an editorial in the local magazine just because you feel like it, where you can get home at any time of the night you want without fear of a curfew, where you can live a free life. But the price of that free life isn't free at all, is it? (I guess it's true that nothing in this life is really free!) Be the person in your group today who stands up and asks for a moment of silence. Or makes sure to include our troops in your mealtime prayer. Or takes your children to a military cemetery or a base or a museum and teaches them that this holiday is sacred and special. Too many people take today for granted. Let's us not make that same mistake, and use it to spread knowledge about the reality of the fact that in order to have a country that is the superpower of the world, our military members and their families sometimes make sacrifices bigger than our comprehension. Today I am remembering my great-grandfather (Navy, Pearl Harbor), my grandpa (Navy, Korea, USS Princeton), my husband (Air Force), and the countless other men and women we know who are currently serving or previously served. I'm thinking of them today; are you?