As we wake up this morning, many of us have the day off from
work. We have already planned many activities, probably a cookout, barbecue,
time with family, several things that we actively take for granted. Every year
when Memorial Day comes around, it's just what we do. We just take
the day off. We spend it with family. We cook, we drink
beer, We do whatever we can to enjoy the fact that we have a
day off. But many of us fail to reflect on why we have the
day off. Many of us fail to reflect on the reason why today is
a holiday. We need to stop and remember there's a reason we celebrate Memorial
Day. And it's not just so we can cook hot dogs. It's not
just so you can put a rack of ribs on your smoker. It's far
more than that. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. Memorial Day is
a day to honor those military servicemen and women who we have lost. It
is a day to where we honor their sacrifices. It is a day where
we are supposed to sit back and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice so
we can live the life that we do today. We're supposed to be honoring
those who made it possible for you to have a job in the first place
that would grant you a day off. But we get so busy and so
wrapped up with our everyday lives that we don't take the time to understand that
these brave men who laid down their lives for us. They're the reason you're
sitting around a pool with your family. They're the reason you have your neighbors
over to try that smoked brisket that you've been perfecting for months. They're the
reason you've got your buddies over drinking beer and watching a ball game. We
need to stop and remember these folks. We need to stop and recognize why
Memorial Day exists. Memorial Day is not just a day to take off work
and cook food and watch balls and drink beer. It is a day that
we are supposed to reflect. Memorial Day's origins started not long after the end
of the Civil War. Communities across the war torn South, but also some
in the North, began to pay homage to their fallen heroes, my visiting
and decorating the graves with flowers gathered in the spring when blossoms are new and
easy to find. They were making memorial Days, or Decoration Days, as
they were first called, and they were solemn and widely observed occasions. Memorial
Day was first observed at Arlington National Cemetery in May of eighteen sixty. The
Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, John A. Logan,
presided over the ceremony and future US President James Carfield was the principal speaker.
Since that time, Memorial Day has grown. It is a huge event
and today we celebrate it, and there's so many stories out there of people
doing more than just sitting around with their family of folks, doing something to
give back to the families the fallen. I think of my friend Don Harkness,
who somewhere, starting early this morning, is standing on a street corner
along with other friends and patriots, collecting money for fallen for the family of
fallen soldiers. He doesn't do it for fame or notoriety. He does it
to help support you See, he was a veteran himself. He's one of
the ones that we still have and he's out there making a difference. I
think my grandfather, my grandfather was lucky. He was deemed to have a
skill that was too important to send to Europe during World War Two. He
was a typewriter repairman, and the story, as it's been told to me,
is that my grandmother brought to the commanding officer's attention that he could fix
his typewriter, and after he did so, he was pulled back out of
his regiment and told he had to state sized. And this was something that
my grandfather felt guilty about until the day he died, because he felt like
he should have been over there with those who made the ultimate sacrifice, that
he should have been over there risking it. My thoughts also go back to
several of the great stories that we've heard throughout the years, and we can
all name stories of military heroes. My thoughts go back to friends that I
know that served, some that weren't lucky enough to come home, some that
were, but have stories of bonds that they made with folks that did make
the ultimate sacrifice. And of course, one of the most infamous story in
recent years of the tragic end of one of our arm service heroes is that
of Pat Tillman, the NFL player who gave up the lucrative, lucrative career
following the events of nine to eleven and was tragically killed in battle by friendly
fire. We can talk about the cover up in those things another day,
but today is a day to remember them. He was willing to make that
sacrifice despite the fact that he had that lucrative NFL career. Are men and
women in uniform are heroes, and we need to remember them as such,
not just a Memorial Day, but every day. But Memorial Day is special
because today is the day to remember the fallen. Today is the day to
pay respect, to show remembrance to those that we have lost. As each
day goes by, the numbers the men who served during the Greatest Generation during
World War Two, they get smaller and smaller. That was a special generation
and now we're coming up on the end of having anyone who served during that
time around to even give us a remote glimpse of what they went through at
that time. So yes, today, when you're enjoying time with your family,
when you're enjoying showing off those smoked barbecue ribs that you work so hard
on, also take a moment to say a few words and remind your family,
your friends, everyone around you that today is not just a day off
of work, but today is a day that we're supposed to stop and remember
the fallen. Today is a day that we're supposed to stop and think about
those that never made it home again and the fact that they were willing to
make that ultimate sacrifice for each and every single one of us so that way
we can live a free life. Those people are special. They deserve more
than just one day. But if all you got time for is one day,
make that one day count, make that one day special, and make
sure that they are at the forefront of whatever family or social gathering you have
planned to day. Guys, I am Jack Fairchild's. This has been morning
Coffee with the Right Side and we are a part of the Midnight Ride Network.