I was watching a baseball game on sunday night when the announcer reminded us to remember the people that have voluntarily put their life in danger for their country. A fair number of them never came home, and there’s no doubt that we owe them a great deal.
On this memorial day, and I think on all memorial days from now on, I want to especially remember the people that died in conflicts that they did not want to be a part of. Many people fought only because they didn’t want to go to jail. They didn’t care about falling dominos, a UN resolution, or any other reason the politicos gave them for killing other people and getting shot at.
It’s one thing to die for something you believe in, it’s quite a different matter to die for something that you don’t care about. A lot of soldiers died that way, between a rock and the draft.
In addition to remembering the bravery of the soldiers that fought and died for us, we should also remember the additional burden of the ones that were forced into dying for us. Memorial day should be a day to remember bravery, but it should mostly be a remembrance of sacrifice.