Monday, May 30, 2016

Loved Ones Lost - Memorial Day 2016

It's a little after 4PM on the afternoon of Memorial Day 2016, and I've just finished showering and getting dressed after a hard day at work. I work in retail, and I've spent the day watching thousands of people come in my store, do their shopping, get their bargains on the great Memorial Day sales prices, and then leave - most of them without giving a moment's thought to just what this day is really all about.

The people in our country today have come to look on Memorial Day as just another day to go to the beach, or have a cookout in the back yard, or go to the local store to take advantage of the great sales going on. They've come to treat this day as just another holiday, just another day that they don't have to work (for some folks, anyway) and can enjoy their day off doing whatever it is they want to do.

Meanwhile, there are hundreds of thousands of people in our country who won't be celebrating anything today. They'll be spending the day remembering the loved ones they lost, the ones who died in service to our country, the ones whose faces they'll never see again except in pictures or home movies; the ones whose arms they'll never feel around them again except in their dreams, the ones whose voices they'll never hear again except in home videos or saved voicemail messages. They'll look at those pictures again, remembering their loved ones; they'll look at the home movies or the videos of the loved ones lost, remembering everything about that person down to the last detail, and then some of them will go to the resting place of their loved one to visit with them for just a little while. They'll stand at the grave site, read the marker that they've read a thousand times before, and they'll talk to the loved one lying beneath it as if that person were standing right in front of them. They'll reach out and touch the cold stone, run their fingers over it and rub it as if they were rubbing the cheek of the loved one lost it represents; then they'll slowly bend down, kiss the stone gently, maybe smile a tearful smile one last time, and then they'll go home. Home to a house full of memories of the loved one lost, the loved one they think of every single day of the year, the one that they honor on this most special of days.

And then they'll cry. Quietly, alone or with another loved one, but they'll cry because they miss their loved one lost.

We as a nation have lost sight of what's important about this day, and many others like it. We still have loved ones in harm's way, and we're still losing them every single day. We as a nation care more about people who have never given a moment's thought to serving our nation instead of devoting our time, efforts, and money to those who have put on the uniform, risked it all, and in many cases sacrificed it all. To those men and women, and to the loved ones they left behind, we owe a great deal. We owe more than we could ever repay, because we owe them our freedom.

We as a nation owe them everything. And we as a nation are failing them.

My words are spent; I've nothing else to say, for I think I've said all that needs to be said. Right now I'm going to go get my Bible, kneel before my God and say a prayer of thanks to Him for the brave men and women who gave their lives so that we can be free. I'm going to ask Him to be with and comfort the families of the loved ones lost, and I'm going to thank Him for bringing me home from the Gulf War whole and in one piece. Lastly, I'm going to ask Him to watch over and protect the men and women who are currently serving our nation in our Armed Forces, and bring them home to their families and loved ones - especially my son, Master Sergeant Raymond E. Craig III, currently assigned to the 51st Security Forces Squadron, Osan Air Base, Korea.

Will you do the same?

Deo Vindice.

IHC