Mark Price - Memorial Day 2021

Mark Price - Memorial Day 2021
2021-05-31

My thoughts on this Memorial Day

1. Let us always honor and never forget those who paid the greatest sacrifice to protect our nation and our freedoms. To quote Abraham Lincoln - "...those who gave their last full measure of devotion..."
Let us always remember that they are not just names on gravestones or names written in books or on walls. They were real people with the same hopes, dreams, pains, joys, happiness and sadness that we experience today. It is because of their sacrifice that we are able to continue to enjoy our lives. Let us never forget that they were real people and in remembering that they were real people we can better and more fully understand their sacrifice.

2. Let us not only remember them as people but also remember what it was they fought for, what it was they fought against and what it was they were willing to die for.
During the revolutionary war it was against oppression and tyranny and for freedom it was against taxation without representation.
In the Civil War it was against slavery and racism. I believe that we are the first and only country in the history of the world to actually fight a war to rid the country of slavery. Hundreds of thousands of people died in an effort to rid this country of slavery and as a result of those brave men and women white black who died in that war the emancipation proclamation was signed and the slaves were given their freedom. The first and only country to ever do such a thing.
In the early part of the 20th century we fought against Leninism, Marxism, Stalinism, communism, and socialism.
The latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st-century we fought against terrorism.
We must remember those things that so many were willing to die for so that if they ever raise their heads again we can collectively stand up against them so that those brave deaths will not have been in vain.

3. We also must remember the God who created all of us and the God who gave those who died the courage to give their lives for this great nation.
We can remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, who, during a very low point of the Civil War while in a meeting with his closest staff, his closest to his advisers, heard one of his advisers say we certainly hope that God is on our side. Abraham Lincoln then promptly and correctly pointed out that it is not about God being on our side but rather it is about our being on God's side.

Let us remember during this and every Memorial Day and throughout the year that God who gave us life is the God who gives us the courage to risk and give our own lives.

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