Our Duty To Remember

It fills me with pride to see American Legion Post all over the state and nation continue with the essential tradition to remember and honor the lives of our fallen heroes.

World War I was fought during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. The following year, 1919 the American Legion became Congressionally-chartered as a patriotic veterans service organization.

Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, "Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future." So we set aside one day to pause, reflect, and remember the men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and we are forced to ask ourselves, "Why did they give their all?"

I believe a primary reason that our service members were willing to pay the ultimate price was to advance our just cause "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." That people are able to self-govern and should overthrow any and every form of tyranny. I am not blind to our own flaws or our struggle to fully implement this just cause within our own society, I take pride in our continual progression and enlist myself in this just cause.

The most basic reason that our service members were willing to pay the ultimate price was to protect the men and women to their right and their left. Many placed their own lives on the line to prevent the death of fellow brothers and sisters in arms. All service members enlist so that their brothers, sisters, parents, sons, daughters, their neighbors can enjoy peace and security at home.

There is not a greater sense of "in this together" than a band of brothers and sisters in arms in a theater of combat.

So are we absolved of all responsibilities, or do we have a duty to know, to understand, and to advance our collective just cause?

"Duty, Honor, Country" - those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." - General Douglas MacArthur