A PYY Memorial Day Message

Well, it doesn’t seem quite possible. Memorial Day 2008 is here, but we‘d never know it because of the cool weather.

First and foremost, I’d like to say to everyone that graces the pages of this blog to be safe. If you drive don’t drink and if you drink, don’t drive.

Those that either work hard now or have worked hard in their working years, certainly deserve to take a break and enjoy the weekend, but no one needs to become a useless statistic. I also urge everyone to take a few moments at a time and a way of their choosing ,to at least give some thought of what this special day is about.

We tend to think of the entire weekend as Memorial Day and we fill it with cookouts, parades, the Indy 500, and other forms of celebrations and recreational activity. And those things are nice. But I don’t ever want to lose sight of the fact of what is important in all of this. One thing has always been impressed upon me as long I have been a breathing human, capable of some reasonable level of cognitive functioning : The reason we have this freedom is because someone in the course of time in our nation’s history, paid the ultimate price for it.

Whether a war was wise or not never really matters much, especially during in the course of this conversation. What does matter is everyone that lost their lives while in service to this country may be forgotten on an individual level. Their names and faces are plenty. Many are forgotten.

If you have been lucky enough to never have lost anyone in an armed conflict, be thankful. Take a good look at your son, father, brother, sister, mother or daughter. Look at a cousin, uncle, or aunt. These whom you love and hold dear to you are people just like those that died in battle.

In addition to the heroes that are forever etched into the roll of the fallen, there remains a number that are still with us today. And yet, sadly, many of these people are the friends that survived and watched their comrades in arms meet their demises. Not only did the friends and families lose, these men and women lost too. They lost some of the dearest friends many of them will ever have.

One of my favorite veterans in the world is my good friend, Mustang. At Social Sense, he has one of the finer tributes to all of the great service members that ever served this country well, carried out their duties with honor, and were no doubt some of the bravest people that ever graced the earth.

Happy Memorial Day to all. And to all of the veterans that remain with us to this day, a hearty thank you to all of you.