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As we wake up this morning,
many of us have the day off from

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work. We have already planned many
activities, probably a cookout, barbecue,

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time with family, several things that
we actively take for granted. Every year

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when Memorial Day comes around, it's
just what we do. We just take

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the day off. We spend it
with family. We cook, we drink

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beer, We do whatever we can
to enjoy the fact that we have a

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day off. But many of us
fail to reflect on why we have the

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day off. Many of us fail
to reflect on the reason why today is

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a holiday. We need to stop
and remember there's a reason we celebrate Memorial

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Day. And it's not just so
we can cook hot dogs. It's not

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just so you can put a rack
of ribs on your smoker. It's far

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more than that. Memorial Day is
a day of remembrance. Memorial Day is

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a day to honor those military servicemen
and women who we have lost. It

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is a day to where we honor
their sacrifices. It is a day where

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we are supposed to sit back and
honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice so

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we can live the life that we
do today. We're supposed to be honoring

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those who made it possible for you
to have a job in the first place

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that would grant you a day off. But we get so busy and so

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wrapped up with our everyday lives that
we don't take the time to understand that

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these brave men who laid down their
lives for us. They're the reason you're

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sitting around a pool with your family. They're the reason you have your neighbors

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over to try that smoked brisket that
you've been perfecting for months. They're the

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reason you've got your buddies over drinking
beer and watching a ball game. We

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need to stop and remember these folks. We need to stop and recognize why

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Memorial Day exists. Memorial Day is
not just a day to take off work

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and cook food and watch balls and
drink beer. It is a day that

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we are supposed to reflect. Memorial
Day's origins started not long after the end

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of the Civil War. Communities across
the war torn South, but also some

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in the North, began to pay
homage to their fallen heroes, my visiting

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and decorating the graves with flowers gathered
in the spring when blossoms are new and

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easy to find. They were making
memorial Days, or Decoration Days, as

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they were first called, and they
were solemn and widely observed occasions. Memorial

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Day was first observed at Arlington National
Cemetery in May of eighteen sixty. The

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Commander in Chief of the Grand Army
of the Republic, John A. Logan,

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presided over the ceremony and future US
President James Carfield was the principal speaker.

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Since that time, Memorial Day has
grown. It is a huge event

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and today we celebrate it, and
there's so many stories out there of people

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doing more than just sitting around with
their family of folks, doing something to

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give back to the families the fallen. I think of my friend Don Harkness,

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who somewhere, starting early this morning, is standing on a street corner

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along with other friends and patriots,
collecting money for fallen for the family of

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fallen soldiers. He doesn't do it
for fame or notoriety. He does it

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to help support you See, he
was a veteran himself. He's one of

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the ones that we still have and
he's out there making a difference. I

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think my grandfather, my grandfather was
lucky. He was deemed to have a

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skill that was too important to send
to Europe during World War Two. He

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was a typewriter repairman, and the
story, as it's been told to me,

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is that my grandmother brought to the
commanding officer's attention that he could fix

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his typewriter, and after he did
so, he was pulled back out of

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his regiment and told he had to
state sized. And this was something that

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my grandfather felt guilty about until the
day he died, because he felt like

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he should have been over there with
those who made the ultimate sacrifice, that

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he should have been over there risking
it. My thoughts also go back to

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several of the great stories that we've
heard throughout the years, and we can

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all name stories of military heroes.
My thoughts go back to friends that I

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know that served, some that weren't
lucky enough to come home, some that

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were, but have stories of bonds
that they made with folks that did make

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the ultimate sacrifice. And of course, one of the most infamous story in

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recent years of the tragic end of
one of our arm service heroes is that

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of Pat Tillman, the NFL player
who gave up the lucrative, lucrative career

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following the events of nine to eleven
and was tragically killed in battle by friendly

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fire. We can talk about the
cover up in those things another day,

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but today is a day to remember
them. He was willing to make that

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sacrifice despite the fact that he had
that lucrative NFL career. Are men and

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women in uniform are heroes, and
we need to remember them as such,

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not just a Memorial Day, but
every day. But Memorial Day is special

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because today is the day to remember
the fallen. Today is the day to

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pay respect, to show remembrance to
those that we have lost. As each

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day goes by, the numbers the
men who served during the Greatest Generation during

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World War Two, they get smaller
and smaller. That was a special generation

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and now we're coming up on the
end of having anyone who served during that

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time around to even give us a
remote glimpse of what they went through at

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that time. So yes, today, when you're enjoying time with your family,

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when you're enjoying showing off those smoked
barbecue ribs that you work so hard

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on, also take a moment to
say a few words and remind your family,

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your friends, everyone around you that
today is not just a day off

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of work, but today is a
day that we're supposed to stop and remember

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the fallen. Today is a day
that we're supposed to stop and think about

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those that never made it home again
and the fact that they were willing to

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make that ultimate sacrifice for each and
every single one of us so that way

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we can live a free life.
Those people are special. They deserve more

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than just one day. But if
all you got time for is one day,

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make that one day count, make
that one day special, and make

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sure that they are at the forefront
of whatever family or social gathering you have

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planned to day. Guys, I
am Jack Fairchild's. This has been morning

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Coffee with the Right Side and we
are a part of the Midnight Ride Network.