My Thoughts on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in defense of our nation, those who have served or are currently serving, and the families who stand strong and sacrifice alongside them. Traditionally, this day is celebrated with barbecues, parades and parties, but often it a time to reflect and remember those who gave their lives for our freedom.

What are we fighting for?

I would like for you to take a minute and review these statistics. Throughout the years, as the US established itself and fought to keep its independence, more than 1,354,664 lives were lost. But these lives were not so quick to be lost, often times the soldiers were abandoned by the US, starving, lost and fearing for their lives, but they refuse to give up even when all is lost. They were fighting for freedom, the American Dream and the chance to have a life.

To honor these veterans, we need to do more than wave our flag and have a cookout. We need to ask ourselves, whether we are strong and righteous, or just strong? Is the America we are living in now, worth dying for?

I think our forefathers would be ashamed of what America has turned into- a greedy, divided, power hungry nation, where the elite few are stepping on everyone to stay at the top and the rest of us are fighting over scraps. They keep us hungry, so we never ask for too much. They keep us working hard, chasing that carrot 40 hours a week, so we never have time or energy to try to dethrone them or put effort into change. We have lost are patriotism because instead of unity, we are fighting among ourselves and look to the government as no more than a bank to disperse money for whatever program we want. We don’t look out for our own, we look out for ourselves, where is the patriotism in that?

We are strong, as we are one of the top powers in the world, but we use that power to feed our corruptness, instead using that power for good. Our forefathers gave us a beautiful gift, but we’ve thrown away and replaced it with ‘security’, division, anger, mediocrity, consumerism, and convenience, but of course, we are free to do so for now. And now to top it all off, we have turned our election into a reality TV show, electing celebrities, who make a mockery out of our system.

As this Memorial Day approached, I realized that as pessimistic as I feel about this nation, I still think it is worth fighting for. The idea it was founded on, the belief that human beings possess natural rights which the state cannot bestow or withhold and the idea that our leaders would be chosen by the people whom they would serve is worth dying for.

Why? The ideals, the passion, the heart and the dreams behind this nation and the beginning of the American dream can’t be killed. It can be suppressed or forgotten for a time, but never killed. No matter what corrupt politicians take front and center, what leaders lead us astray, the ideas that made this nation great is what will live on and the possibility that we could come back is absolutely worth fighting for.

I’ve taken this Memorial Day to reflect on what I can do. Not everyone is called to be in the military, but I don’t want to waste the lives of those that are.  If I am not going to join the fight, I have a duty to make an America worth fighting for.

We have to come together, put our differences aside, stop letting our emotions cloud our judgement and work to make this country great. Clear and precise decisions cannot be made while fighting over who is right and who is not.  No Appropriate choices can be made by making false accusations against each other in order to obtain favor, Nor should we look at the running of our government as means of obtaining and holding power for one political party over the other. We have to stop pointing fingers. It really doesn’t matter who is at fault, we just have to decide to work together, compromise, and figure out what is going to fix the problem.