Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. But this year, a gray cloud hangs over the occasion.
Since Jan. 20, we’ve witnessed a clear and coordinated effort to erase the contributions of many service members who died defending the very freedoms we hold dear, an attempt to ease the discomfort that comes with confronting hard truths about our nation’s history. The reality is simple: Americans of all backgrounds have long played a significant role in securing the liberties that define this country.
Jeffrey Hulum III Credit: Mississippi House of RepresentativesDuring my 22 years of active federal service, I proudly served six combat tours, from Kosovo to Iraq to Afghanistan. I carry the weight of every deployment.
In Iraq, 2003, as a noncommissioned officer, I witnessed a young African American father killed in action. He never got to see his daughter take her first steps, graduate or walk down the aisle. That same sorrow followed me to Afghanistan in 2016, as a senior enlisted advisor in Kabul, conducting a ramp ceremony for a Caucasian American 18-year-old recent high school graduate killed in action. He had his whole life ahead of him, but laid it down so that young women and children in Afghanistan might have a better life.
Like so many before me, service members have sacrificed, endured and stood firm in defense of the values America claims to uphold. Throughout history, African American veterans have fought with honor, on foreign battlefields and here at home. Many gave their lives in service, generation after generation, and now their contributions are starting to be ignored, sacrifices buried under systemic neglect, literally being erased from military records, including at Arlington National Cemetery and at service academies.
This country was built on the ideals of liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness, principles that have too often been denied to many veterans. For generations, service men and women have laid down their lives for this country, in the hope that their children might one day inherit the full promise of the American Dream.
As Memorial Day becomes more associated with the start of summer than with solemn remembrance, I urge you to pause. Reflect on the lives lost to make our freedom possible, especially those who never returned home, whose families were left to grieve in a country that too often denied them the very rights their loved ones died to protect.
It is deeply disappointing to see individuals in positions of influence and power show such disregard for the lives lost in defense of this nation. When Memorial Day is politicized or dismissed, it dishonors every man and woman who gave all.
This holiday is more than symbolic. It is a sacred testament to sacrifice, service and the enduring legacy of groups like the Tuskegee Airmen, who helped change the course of World War II, even as they faced discrimination at home.
Amid both domestic turmoil and international uncertainty, understand this: the unrelenting sacrifice of any veteran, including African American veterans, helped build the superpower that America is today. There is no freedom, no liberty, no pursuit of happiness without those who came before us and gave everything they had.
Let us remember them, not just with words, but with the dignity and recognition they earned.
Jeffrey Hulum III, sergeant major (retired), U.S. Army, is a native of Gulfport. Since returning home in 2018, he has been a committed advocate for children and seniors. He currently represents House District 119 in the Mississippi Legislature.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Army veteran: Memorial Day should remind people that some gave all while having few rights back home )
Also on site :
- The Tragic Rise of No Doubt and Gwen Stefani Chronicled in a New Book
- McDonald’s Fans Beg for International Menu Item to Come to the US
- India general admits jet losses in clash with Pakistan: Here’s what he said