This Memorial Day has more significance to me than any in the past. After four months of taking testimonials from veterans from WWII through Afghanistan, my appreciation for their service has grown. This includes the veterans who never saw combat, but made their promise to do whatever and go wherever their country asked.
Each branch of the service and each war zone had its special issues but all veterans have strong bonds of commonality. They were willing to fight for the rest of us who enjoy the freedoms that we could be in danger of losing on the home front. Freedom does not come easy. It has a price. If our veterans serve "over there", the rest of us Americans should support them by our willingness to fight for the freedoms too many of us take for granted. That is not a simple fight. Issues are complex. We can remain open and continue to read, listen and learn. It takes time and energy, but if we remain gullible and thoughtless and follow the clever, simplistic ads that bombard us everywhere, or believe that we should follow one path because that is the way we have always done things, or we have discomfort with change, or, if we pursue change simply for the sake of change, we will, in time, lose what our veterans have fought for since our country took root.
Happy Memorial Day from the Black Hills of South Dakota.
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