Monday was Memorial Day, and I spent the weekend reflecting on my dad and his brother.
Both were in the service — my dad in the Air Force for more than 20 years, my uncle in the Navy until his death in 1975 — and both were proud.
While I knew that serving in the military wasn’t for me, I told everyone who asked how proud I was they served.
That carried through into my career; one of the first columns I ever wrote dealt with this topic. (My editor said, “Write about Memorial Day for the Editorial Page. If it helps, we’re for it.”)
Thing was, I didn’t need that help. Knowing that there were people out there who would fight and die for this country, and purely because of a deep-seated belief in freedom, was humbling. It even made me feel a bit guilty because I didn’t want to share that ultimate sacrifice.
(My chosen defense of liberty is through freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Not the same, but still as necessary.)
Every year, particularly in my business, I notice that the thing mentioned most around this holiday isn’t the soldiers and military members killed in action, who gave their life in defense of this country. Mostly, it’s about grilling and the first long weekend of the summer, meaning boating and camping and gardening and quite a lot of other -ings.
Then I think back over the years and the wars that have shaped this country and what our mostly fully volunteer military had sacrificed; 25,000 in the Revolutionary War, 620,000 in the Civil War, 116,516 in World War I, 405,399 in World War II, 36,574 in the Korean War, 58,220 in the Vietnam War, and a combined 7,060 in the conflicts following 9/11.
Then it occurs to me that other things get entire months of recognition, or days of visibility, or history observances, and while those events and observances have meaning, to me it pales to the contributions and sacrifices of the men and women who died for this country.
And as I pointed out, these heroes made the choice to serve, offered up their lives and their beliefs to defend a country that, with few exceptions, takes that service for granted.
Sure, there are POW/MIA flags, war memorials of every stripe, and in many cities across the land, as well as numerous national cemeteries across the land (my dad is buried in the National Cemetery in Santa Fe; my uncle in Arlington, Va.)
But is that enough?
The phrase “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” is the best descriptor of the heroes of our freedom. So, I think that in that vein, there needs to be more than just a day of observance. There needs to be days and weeks and months where we reflect on the sacrifices that were made, and a recommitment for all of us to support those defenders with everything we have. Because they sure did.
Memorial Month? To paraphrase my former editor, I’m for it.
Tony Farkas is editor of the Trinity County News-Standard and the San Jacinto News-Times. He can be reached at tony@polkcountypublishing.com.
