The Ideal of Freedom, Paid for in Blood

Identity, whether personal, cultural, or national, cannot be maintained without memory: By forgetting what came before, we lose sight of who we are. Memorial Day in America thus serves a critical purpose: By remembering those patriots who gave their lives for our nation we not only accord them the honor that is their due, but we also ensure the continuation of the American identity for which they fought. Renewing their memory is essential to keeping our identity.

Of course, our superficial, or visible, identity as a nation is always changing, just as individuals grow and change. This is natural and good. But what we should seek to keep constant is our core identity, who we are deep down. In America, this identity has been based on an enterprising work ethic, a humbling faith in the Almighty, an optimism for the future, a devotion to one’s neighbor, and a self-control that makes self-government possible.

The American identity is continually being forged and renewed by generations of immigrants who have the courage and pluck to leave their old countries and come to America in search of a better life. America’s spirit is a result of this self-selection: It is a nation created predominantly by people who had to undergo arduous feats to reach her shores and borders. The discipline required to start a new life in a new land has been passed down to generations of Americans, though it must be continually renewed, by new immigrants and by concerted efforts of those whose families have long been here to recommit ourselves to our founding principles.

For most people, the best way to honor and abide by those principles is to use them for good, to raise families in a flourishing environment and to serve those in need. But there are times when some Americans are called to go beyond, to put their lives on the line to protect those principles, and even to shed their blood. Such blood is never wasted, even if subsequent generations selfishly ignore the cost of freedom, for “greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

On Memorial Day, we do not simply say thanks to those veterans who have died in war; we say thanks to those who have died in war fighting for a particular idea and a particular cause: the American way of life, which allows human beings to flourish.

And though there is a great tendency today to dismiss dissenters or those who argue over politics as being simply divisive, we should remember that many have given their lives so that we would have the right to voice our disagreements with civility. They did not shed blood so we would all simply agree or even agree to disagree. The give and take of American discourse, the politics of American life, are essentials part of our hard-won freedoms.

In his eloquent, succinct Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln explained why we need to remember the sacrifices of our warriors:

“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom —and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Just as, in the Christian calendar, the Feasts of All Souls and All Saints serve to remind the living that they are part of a great continuum of life, of a community of the living and dead, Memorial Day is a secular reminder that those who preceded us still matter, that they constitute the “democracy of the dead.” Let us honor their sacrifices not simply by recalling their feats once a year, by wearing the poppies on our lapels, and by placing wreaths on graves. Let us, as we govern ourselves, always give consideration to the ideas for which our warriors were so willing to shed their blood. On Memorial Day, we remember that we should not disfranchise those who have died for the preservation of our identity.