Memorial Day is a different
kind of holiday. More a day for honoring and remembering than pure
celebration. In America, it's different in another way, it's
different because we support the values our heroes died for, not just
the sacrifice they made for their country. While virtually every
country honors their war dead, only a few also honor the cause or
causes they died for. In former communist and fascist countries,
those who honor their dead likely reject the political causes they
died for. In some, perhaps most cases, the honor is for protecting
their homelands and answering the call of duty. In some cases, they
were pressed into service to fight for a cause not their own, but
they are honored nonetheless.

That's not to say that our
values would be or should be in complete accord with each and every
American fallen hero. The war against the Native American tribes
comes to mind. Did they fall in protection of their loved ones, or
in an effort subdue a people? Maybe both? Most importantly however,
those men and women we honor were our family, friends, our
countrymen. They were people who fought for a cause greater than
themselves. They fought and died for a dream, an ideal we call
“America”. It's an idea we might spend the rest of our days
perfecting, but a worthy one. The challenge is to keep that idea,
that all men are created equal under God, that values life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, be the reason we fight, if we must
fight. We honor our fallen by honoring those ideals, so that their
sacrifices will never be in vain.

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