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Mackenzie Eaglen: Memorial Day is about reflecting on the price of our freedom and security. We think of the wars so many Americans have fought — and are fighting — for the rest of us and our way of life.
So, too, should we be grateful for the wars we have not had to fight because of American military strength.
Our unparalleled and professional all-volunteer force helps prevent conflict in the first place. Through a forward-deployed global presence, regular training exercises with partner and allied nations, and the ability to respond to crises at a moment’s notice, the US helps promote stability, peace and prosperity.
This Memorial Day, let us pay honor and offer respect for all those who serve or have served in the United States Armed Forces, their families, and all military retirees and veterans.
Gary Schmitt: What does it mean to be a good citizen? Or, more specifically, a good American citizen? For some, it’s paying your taxes, obeying the laws and raising a family of similarly decent individuals. For others, it’s involvement in community affairs, volunteering time and actively engaging in policy debates our various decisions local, state and federal governments might make. But, at the end of the day, the highest form of citizenship is the willingness to defend and even die for the very political order that makes the two previous ways possible. It is on Memorial Day that we stop and remember those who have made that ultimate sacrifice. As Abraham Lincoln charged his audience at the dedication of the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg just a little over 150 years ago:
So, too, that remains our charge today.
David Adesnik: Memorial Day changes as you get older. When I was a student, I thought most about the young men and women who sacrificed the long lives ahead of them. Why did they choose to risk everything they might ever have? Now, as a father, I think more about those parents who must endure the pain of outliving their children. My daughter is far too young to serve and my son is waiting to be born. I am already so invested in protecting them that I am afraid of them even wanting to serve. Yet it is the children of veterans, or even those still on active duty, who serve far more often than others. We should reserve a special honor for those who risk not just their own lives, but who support their children’s decisions to serve, even though it may entail an even more painful sacrifice.
Leon Kass: Despite the commercial and other distractions, the barbeques and the beginning of summer festivities, many Americans still memorialize the nation’s dead each year. Hundreds gather each year at Arlington Cemetery where the President and Vice president place a reef on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Members of the Army’s 3rd US Infantry, the Old Guard are right now placing miniature flags in front of each of the gravestones of the Arlington National Cemetery, which now includes hundreds of new arrivals that have given their lives since 9/11, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But how really do we honor our departed heroes today, especially those we have recently lost, lost in wars in which only one percent of us bear the burden, in wars which have become politically unpopular, and in a culture that is less and less given to memory? At a bare minimum, it would help if we could learn about their services as they saw it and as they lived it. It would help greatly if we could learn about who they were, how they lived and who they loved, why and how they fought, how they died, and how their lives and deaths live on, and those they left behind.
General John Allen: (Excerpt from remarks given at “Brothers Forever”: a Book forum and Memorial Day discussion) There are many holidays, many annual inflection points where we as a population are called on by virtue of the presence of this moment in the calendar to reflect on who we are. In particular, the 4th of July re-anchors us every year in who they are. Veterans Day…we remember the horrendous costs of the Great War. But Memorial Day for all of us is different because this is about all of the people who served, and it’s really more than just those in uniform. It’s the civilians who served, the Rosie the Riveters, the folks in the industry that sacrifice so much on our behalf.
We in uniform, we take pride and pleasure each time that point in the year to reflect upon our personal sacrifices, but to go to the cemeteries and to pay homage to those who have gone before us. So, perhaps because we’ve all gone through recruit training and served on the edge, it’s a bit easier for us. For the rest of the population who have not served, it is a moment of opportunity to reach out to understand why that day…has been secure for them, and to think about that while the parade is going on or the barbeque is occurring. We as a society probably might want to put more emphasis on this. You can separate the politics from the sacrifice. You can separate the cause of the war from the dedication, because one is transitory, the other is permanent. It’s a permanent presence in our society, and it’s a permanent indicator of who we are as a people.
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