This weekend millions of Americans will be celebrating the Memorial Day Holiday. The sad truth is this: the meaning is lost to millions. For many Americans this weekend kicks off the summer recreational season. Good folks will head to their favorite campground, fishing hole, relatives house, or other spot for relaxation. On Monday afternoon I plan on cooking outside. The grand-kids will come over and we will spend precious time together. Friends will be at the nearby campground where I might eat my once a year Smore. The campfire will rekindle memories, images, and smells of past campfires and family members passed on.
As a kid Memorial Day was also know by another name, Decoration Day. A drive past any cemetery on Memorial Day would have been filled with sights of hundreds of small American flags placed by the grave of every service member. Memorial Day 1970 was one that is still very vivid. The military honor guard was gathered at the grave site of my brother. There were some words, long forgotten but sincere, and then the salutes. What will never be forgotten is the gun fire and the lonely for-lone sound of, Day is done, gone the sun. (Taps)
My personal freedom didn't cost me a red cent. I was born an American. Born in the land of freedom and opportunity. I was taught that my freedom was a gift. My freedom was given to me, I didn't earn it. I listened to stories of the men who fought for "my unearned freedom." My father and uncles fought against a global tyranny that threatened to suck the free breath from every soul. I began to have a sense of the cost to them. My "unearned freedom" was costly. During that time of terror nearly 14 million American men and women put on a uniform and pledged their lives for us, you and me.
I am greatly dismayed by what is happening today. Millions of young adults are expecting to receive at no cost. And, this is not American freedom that I refer too. The entitlement mindset is spreading like a wildfire. Kids get their drivers license and expect a car. There are more cell phones used by kids in school than any other age group. I do not mean to bad talk everybody. Many young people pay for their own cell phone, car, and other expenses. But, they are fast becoming the minority. Now, a free college education is being demanded and may come to pass.
What cost-less to us means less. What is cost-less soon becomes thought-less. Those words are very dangerous to all of us. The men and women from the Greatest Generation are soon to be gone. Their wisdom, experience, and spirit will just become words of lore and memory. The boys that were 18 and 19 that stormed the red beaches of Normandy will be soon laid to rest. The Honor Guard will fire and Taps will play, they may soon be forgotten.
We must remember that Cost-less can equal Thought-less. God help us this Memorial Day to remember the cost and demand that respect be given to those who gave us our undeserved freedom.
Tedd A Galloway
www.teddgalloway.com
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