A Sacrifice We Don't Deserve

In today’s consumer-oriented society, we are so fixated on instant gratification and what’s-in-it-for-me ideals that we too often take for granted our freedoms, our liberty – even our privileges. After all, we’re Americans. We deserve to live in a democracy, to have a bloodless change of regime, to enjoy a higher quality of life than much of the world.

Then the calendar rolls around to Memorial Day, reminding us, for at least this one day, that our country was born and has survived – not because we deserve it – but because men and women for more than 200 years have believed in the United States, and what it stands for, so much that they were willing to put their lives on the line.

We don’t deserve their sacrifice.

And although we can never repay the debt we owe our veterans, we must recognize that, without them, there would be no democracy, no liberty – no freedom.

So this Memorial Day while you’re enjoying the unofficial start of summer, please give a thought to all the men and women who were willing to sacrifice everything so we wouldn’t have to.