O Remember, Remember

I don't want to sound like an old fogie, but I really think we've lost the spirit of Memorial Day. I remember we used to spend more time celebrating our troops and paying homage to those who died while in the uniform of our armed forces.

I'm guessing that most of us will appreciate the day off, but won't spend much time thinking about those who fought and died for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" around the world.

Without the soldiers of World War II, I would most likely have been born in German-occupied Holland. The allied forces that fought and died for the rights of strangers fought and died for the rights of my dad's parents.

My mom's dad served as a radio operator in Korea. He had a ham radio set in his bedroom for a while when I was growing up. My wife's grandpa was an army surgeon; her dad was a door gunner during Vietnam; my brother-in-law fuels fighter jets.

I think too often we forget that our military is full of people who made a choice and committed to a cause in a way that our society can find hard to comprehend. Ask yourself this, is there anything you believe strongly enough that you would be willing to die for? Anything you believe strongly enough that you would be willing to kill for? Our soldiers have all committed to fight, and possibly die and/or kill in the service of our country.

How many of us respect our country? How many of us respect the symbols of our country, and specifically here I'm talking about the flag of the United States. Do we respect it?

While we were at the Aaronic priesthood camp, Marcus, Luke and I got to participate in the retiring of a flag. While I know the flag is just colored cloth, what it stands for is important. It is not insignificant that anyone who served in the military is honored at their funeral with a flag on their coffin. Memorializing our dead soldiers and respecting the flag are indelibly linked.

So, please, spend some time this Monday thinking about the fact that what we have was bought for a price by people you don't know, people who sacrificed their all for the ideals of this nation. If you read this after Memorial Day, take a few moments to make today a day of memorial for those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom.