MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - JUST ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL LONG WEEKEND - RIGHT?

Sweet, another long weekend to enjoy with family and friends. It just doesn't get any better than this. We'll barbecue in the backyard, maybe go fishing with the kids or best friend, take the family to the mountain or lake cottage, work on that home project, perhaps spend some quality time with the family, but best of all, a day off from the job on Monday.

Maybe something is missing in this picture you have of Memorial Day weekend. What does this coming Memorial Day really mean? What is it all about, especially for those who have lost loved ones in our wars? Wars that have seemed to be nonstop since the Revolutionary War, which created our Constitutional Republic and gave us freedoms and liberties not experienced anywhere else in the world.

But while we enjoy the long weekend, we seem to have forgotten that the freedoms and liberties that allow us to enjoy this holiday, this beginning of summer, did not come free.

Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, is supposed to be a day set aside for honoring and mourning those U.S. military personnel who gave their lives in the service of the United States to protect our freedoms, liberties, Judeo-Christian way of life, and the Constitution, the most significant document ever penned by mankind, which gives us those God given rights.

Who exactly are we honoring on this special day? Mostly kids, just young kids between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. Just kids who never got the chance to live a life blessed with wives, husbands, children, and grandchildren; Careers, professions, homes, gardens, and vacations with the family. A life that we enjoy, but that was never to be for them.

Dreams and possibilities all lost because these young kids chose to serve their country during times of war, knowing that they may be called upon to give the ultimate sacrifice—their lives—and did so without hesitation, without question.

Those young kids thought, to the end, that they were defending their country, an honorable and just nation. They believed, to the end, that they were defending their fellow American citizens, YOU, from foreign adversaries intent on destroying your American dream that you have been so blessed to enjoy.

The question that has constantly haunted my mind since my return from Vietnam is: Why did I survive and they did not? Am I worthy of surviving and deserving of the sacrifice made by the thirty-three fellow Marines I came to call my friends who lost their lives, fighting by my side, in Vietnam?

I am constantly asking myself, have I done enough in the service of my country, in defending the Constitution, and in defending my Judeo-Christian values and beliefs? Do I find the courage and strength to defend those values and beliefs when my heart tells me it's the right thing to do? Have I done enough to be worthy of their sacrifice?

Have I sacrificed enough of my time and energy being engaged and involved, watching and holding accountable the very government that sent those young kids, my friends, to their deaths? Have I sacrificed enough to keep those within that political arena accountable, despite the challenges and backlash that doing so will create, to be worthy of their sacrifice?

Have I done enough to be worthy of their sacrifice?

And what of the one million plus men and women, mostly young kids, who have lost their lives fighting in defense of America since the Revolutionary War? Have you taken the time to wonder if you have done enough in the service of our great nation to justify their sacrifice?

Those young kids gave all for each of us, and in return, what have you done to justify their ultimate sacrifice for you? Can you look yourself in the mirror and say you have done enough to justify their sacrifice?

Monday is Memorial Day, a day to honestly reflect on this question and, in turn, to answer that question honestly. It is a day to determine whether you have done enough to justify their great sacrifice.

If not, maybe Monday is a good day to start getting involved in the governance of this great nation to be worthy of the sacrifice. Better yet, start today. While you enjoy having your loved ones with you for this long weekend, this is the day to start. Today is the day to start saying you are worthy of their ultimate sacrifice.

America needs you involved and engaged. In doing so, you honor those fallen heroes and the loved ones who will never know the joy of having them in their lives.