Manfredi: Memorial Day more than break from work

Memorial Day means remembering those who sacrificed everything to give us the freedoms: which we sometimes take for granted. The fact we can go about our days with nearly a thought to the sacrifice paid each day is testament to why we need to honor these men and women.

Ronald Reagan said it best in a speech at Arlington in 1982. "Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we — in a less final, less heroic way — be willing to give of ourselves."

Memorial Day is not a day to celebrate the unofficial start to the summer BBQ and swim seasons. It is not merely a day when we get break from our mundane work week. It's a day that we get to look back and thank every soldier who paid the ultimate price to give us the opportunity to live in this great country.

Today we should also thank those who were left behind by mothers, fathers, sons and daughters; who nobly took up arms to protect us all. America was birthed in blood but thrives on the freedom to choose our destiny. Thankfully many have chosen to defend our land and our ideals. We must return the favor by remembering them and memorializing their sacrifice.

My father lost a brother named Joseph in Tunisia in 1943. He was a young man of 21 who I never met. He never married and never had children, but his legacy lives on in us all. Joseph left high school in his junior year to enlist in the Army and was sent to Tunisia to fight the Axis forces. He never came home but that did not discourage my father from joining the Air Force, serving his time as an aerial gunner.

John F Kenney said "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

The evidence of this can be found at Arlington National Cemetery and many other cemeteries throughout this great land of ours.