The Immeasurable Cost of Freedom

Memorial Day is dedicated as a day of remembrance of our finest citizens... those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service and defense of our nation. It strikes me as both peculiar and mind-numbing that much social media attention has been devoted this weekend not in solemn remembrance, but for educating the masses on the distinction between the meaning of Memorial Day and other National Holidays. For most of America, this weekend will strike many to remain mindful, if even for just a minute, of our lost Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen. To many of our fellow Veterans, both young and old, it is Memorial Day every day, our memories permanently etched with images and voices of those we've served along side with and who we memorialize.

That we need such a day of remembrance, and a need to remind many of its meaning, is in the grand scheme of things not too surprising. That's not a dig or insult to anyone... it is just that our nation's military has been getting smaller and smaller over time, and a declining percentage of Americans will ever have worn the uniforms of our Armed Services. Nearly half of all living Veterans are aged 65 or older... most of these men and women served in the Cold War, Vietnam, Korean and WWII eras, and we are losing them faster today to age than ever before. As our percentage of American Veterans falls faster, fewer and fewer will ever know first-hand the personal toll and cost to our society that this weekend represents.

Still, many of us do know the names of someone who was killed or died in service to our country. They are our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends and relatives we once knew and continue to love. Yet I still wonder sometimes of those fallen, "what if..." What if they survived?

We remember who we have lost. We also must reflect on what they would have continued to contribute to our families, our communities and our country. Who they would have become... future fathers and mothers, grandparents, captains of industry, elected and civic leaders, teachers, pioneers of modern medicine... we will never know for certain. It is the loss of what could have been that is the immeasurable cost that those we honor this weekend have paid.