Memorial Day and Memorial Weekend Remind Us to Honor Those Whose Ultimate Sacrifice Purchased the Freedom We Enjoy and Proved Freedom Isn't Free.

Memorial Day and Memorial Weekend Remind Us to Honor Those Whose Ultimate Sacrifice Purchased the Freedom We Enjoy and Proved Freedom Isn't Free.·

Today, Friday, May 27, 2011, begins Memorial Weekend leading to Memorial Day on Monday, May 30, 2011. Many Americans will celebrate it as a four-day weekend or as weekend for finding bargains at stores touting Memorial Day "sales." Yet many-- surely most-- Americans will also seek ways to express their gratitude to those who paid the ultimate price in order for the liberty we enjoy (and too often take for granted) to endure for us and our posterity. Not all will be able to attend a special event, but all of us can at least do this: Seek out someone who is currently serving, or who is a family member of someone currently serving, in our military and do something to express thanks: A salute or hug and a sincere "thank you," a gift card for dinner in a nice restaurant, tickets to a movie, tickets to a baseball game, a visit to a wounded warrior, a donation to Fisher House, perform a chore (e.g., cut grass, clean gutters, wash windows), etc. There are countless ways to say "thanks."

We pause for this Memorial Day to join in this refrain to those who gave their all to us so freedom we'd retain. For darkness they confronted in preserving freedom's light, we owe them more than we can pay for giving more than life. But lives they gave endure today in hearts and souls and minds of we who drink from freedom's cup the fruits of freedom's vine.

We pause for this Memorial Day
to join in this refrain
to those who gave their all to us
so freedom we'd retain.

For darkness they confronted
in preserving freedom's light,
we owe them more than we can pay
for giving more than life.

But lives they gave endure today
in hearts and souls and minds
of we who drink from freedom's cup
the fruits of freedom's vine.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com

From whence do such heroes come? For what should we thank them? How should we thank them? Each of us must find his own way to answer these questions. Here are my thoughts on the subject in the form of a song I wrote titled, "Thanks In Our Name For Deeds In Our Name":

Thanks In Our Name For Deeds In Our Name

From farms in the country, from cities and towns,
from places quite humble, from places renowned,
from fact'ries, from stores and from offices tall,
from service professions, from stores in our malls,
come citizen soldiers their country to serve
as full time professionals or guard or reserve.

From mothers and fathers and husbands and wives,
from children and lovers and friends in their lives,
our citizen soldiers depart despite tears
on missions of danger in spite of their fears
as selflessly, proudly, and bravely they serve
that freedom of conscience and Faith be preserved.

In caves and in tunnels where murderers train
unspeakable terror they face in our name.
With principled discipline, training and skill
in taming the instinct to kill or be killed
our citizen soldiers have honored our name,
so, proudly we thank them for deeds in our name.

They serve in the skies, and at sea and on land,
in mountains and jungles and deserts of sand,
on foot and in foxholes, in trenches and tents,
in tanks and on submarine mission descents,
in planes and on ships and on carrier decks,
in Humvees, and hangars and convoys on treks.

For risks to themselves in their battles with terrors
increased by attempts to use force without error,
for risks to themselves they increase by providing
assistance to those who for freedom are striving,
our citizen soldiers have honored our name,
so thank them we must for their deeds in our name.

So we and posterity freedom retain
barbaric regimes you confront in our name.
To you who defend us, we proudly proclaim
our pride in the deeds you have done in our name.
We thank you, we thank you for deeds in our name,
We thank you, we thank you for deeds in our name.·

To view an updated version of the above tribute to our troops,
click the image below.