364 Days Until Memorial Day

I didn't write yesterday.

Not because I didn't feel it was a worthwhile topic, but because I couldn't think of anything worthy to say. Those who have fallen for our country, and the loved ones they have left behind, deserve more than cliche, better than rhetoric, and that's all I could come up with.

So I remained silent.

But now I realize something dreadful, something sobering, something shameful.

The dead can't speak.

Obviously, right? Then ask yourself how often we don't speak on behalf of the dead when we have the opportunity. How often does someone run down this nation, our military, us . . . and we say nothing. Those who died to ensure our right to speak deserve more than our silence.

I said that I didn't write yesterday because all I could come up with were the same old cliches and well worn rhetoric we always break out on Memorial Day. I didn't feel I could say something new, so I said nothing at all.

I was wrong.

I would have been right to repeat words that honor our fallen heroes. I would have been right to put voice once again to their sacrifice. I would have been right to repeat their words of the past, because they can say nothing at all.

Their voices are silent, but ours are not.

The graves in Arlington, in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and 133 other national cemeteries, cemeteries private and public--graves marked, unmarked, and below the seas--they are silent. They are a powerful statement, a testimony unto themselves, but those laid to rest there are, in this world at least, silenced.

Are we?

Are we so callous that we can enjoy a day off work, cook out on the grill, drink a few beers, and not say anything about why we are celebrating? Are we so ashamed of our nation that we wouldn't dare bring up the memory of those who died for it? Are we too comfortable, too spoiled, too self-absorbed to care?

I hope not. I pray not. I fear so.

Our voices have not been silenced. Our opportunities to speak lay before us, not behind.

Say it loud, and often.

I am deeply grateful to those who have fallen in the name of the United States of America, and humbled by their sacrifice. It's been said a million times, but it's worth repeating. It reminds us what we have, and at what cost. It honors the memory of the fallen. It offers a bit of encouragement to their bereaved.

It's the right thing to do.

We have 364 days until the next Memorial Day, but why wait until then? What if we remembered today, and tomorrow, and every day what we have, and those who secured it for us? What if we didn't let those flags sit around gathering dust until Veterans Day but instead flew them proudly? What if we memorialized the loss of the thousands which gave freedom to us millions?

What if?

I think we might just be a little more grateful for what we have, and respectful of what it cost.