Memorial Day Remembrance 2024 serves as a time for reflection and gratitude as we honor the sacrifices made by those who have served in our nation's armed forces. This day holds special significance as we remember the brave men and women who have given their lives to protect our freedoms and way of life.
It is important to take a moment to pause and pay tribute to these heroes, recognizing their selflessness and courage in the face of adversity. Their dedication and commitment to duty exemplify the highest ideals of service and sacrifice for the greater good.
Memorial Day encompasses the almost 1.4 million Americans who have died in the country’s wars and conflicts, beginning with the Revolutionary War. That figure does not tell the full story of our war dead because each conflict leaves a broad wake of destruction, including future deaths of service personnel from war-related physical and psychological wounds, substance abuse, suicide and exposure to harmful substances like Agent Orange and burn pit emissions.
That was the way it was done back then.  You honored the soldiers, along with stops she made at her parents’ graves, where Grandma always left a bouquet of fresh-cut dahlias, the flower of choice from her own garden.
I never forgot those experiences, and after my family moved to Miami County in the 60s I would walk around Forrest Hill cemetery in Piqua, reading the headstones of the fallen veterans who rested there.  For the longest time I could tell you something about each of them, but as time passed I moved on to more compelling Memorial Day venues.
Jerry Russell, a Civil War battlefield preservationist who for years fought to preserve the sanctity of places like Manassas, Gettysburg, and Franklin, Tennessee.  If you remember when the Disney group was planning a theme park at Manassas battlefield, it was Russell, among significant others, who led the fight to keep them out.  They succeeded.
What has emerged from these questions is a collective narrative of sacrifice in service to good. While I think the term hero is used too loosely today, I agree with Joseph Campbell’s definition: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
On this Memorial Day weekend, pay your respects to the dead. But make time to remember the living. Share in the joys and sorrows of others. Be brave enough to love, even though it risks a stone in the heart. Think about what is bigger than yourself. And to the power and mystery of our collective national memory offer an act of civic prayer, even if it’s just a painted coffee can filled with borrowed flowers.
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