Yes, the word "happy" is in quotes, but there's a reason for that. As a veteran, I think it's important to understand Memorial Day and why I think our happiness needs to be put in the correct context.
We should celebrate today. We should enjoy our cookouts and parties. We can and should kick back and relax on our three-day weekend.
We should celebrate, though, not because it's a three-day weekend, but because thousands of Americans fought and died for us, and we should celebrate their memories.
For the record, I'm also including those we've lost since their time in combat because, for whatever reason, they couldn't keep back the demons anymore.
The cookouts and the trips out of town are all fine, because that's what those brothers and sisters fought for. They fought and gave their lives for a nation that values individual freedom. What you do with that freedom is up to you, and it's up to you because they were willing to give it all up for something greater than themselves.
From Lexington and Concord to the skies of Iran, Americans have fought bravely, and we've lost too many people we can never replace. We should celebrate their sacrifice.
Then, on Tuesday, we should return to work with a renewed understanding of where we fit into the world. We have the freedom to define our own lives and to shape our destinies, not because we voted for a particular candidate. We have it because American men and women died preserving our freedom to do so.
Oh, don't get me wrong, voting matters. Voting for terrible people can lead to a lot more men and women joining the ranks of those we've lost than we should ever hope to see. But it's the sacrifice that has kept us from having to speak German or Japanese. It's their sacrifice meant we were no longer subject to the British Crown. It's their sacrifice that fought the spread of communism throughout the world.
Never let us forget that sacrifice.
So enjoy. Celebrate today. Kick back and relax. Have a cold beer or whatever. Have a couple of slugs of your favorite bourbon or whatever. Watch a movie with the family or spend it alone. Do whatever you want to celebrate. I just ask you to remember as well.
Let us remember so that, hopefully, we will never take that freedom for granted, nor should we ever give it up easily because of shiny promises by politicians who think you should forfeit liberty for the illusion of safety, or give up our freedom for the warm embrace of an ideology that would turn us all into slaves of the state.
Enjoy today and the rest of your lives. You and I have been given a gift, and it's been given to us by those who came before, fought, and died for this magnificent nation. I don't care about the self-hatred of those who see the United States as evil. I care about the freest nation on the planet and the men and women who have kept it that way.
They're who matters today. They're who matters on every other day, too. We just set aside this particular day to remember their gallant sacrifice for us all.
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