My best description of today is honoring those that died in service of our country. We are not thanking veterans or first responders and we are not parroting “Freedom is not free”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

Imagine that we were farmers and we all plant the same crop. We have the same costs and we all work sun up to sun down all spring and summer. Yet when it comes harvest time, I harvest and sell my crop and you inexplicably abandon the field. As a result I prosper for that year and you starve and die.

We wouldn’t honor that person as a farming hero who died in the career of feeding the world. We would likely say he is a fool who died as a result of his lack of farming efforts. It is not what you do to get to the end point but what you do with it that is honorable.

It would be admirable if I ploughed your field, bought your seed, tended your crops and harvested your bounty. What if after all of that, I died in a farming accident and you then just leave the crop to waste? After that, you then turn around and say ‘I know that this is prime farming ground, this crop has an infinite return and is necessary for a happy and healthy life but instead of farming it, I am going to build a shopping mall here’.

Those actions are not honoring my farming and human efforts, they are doing the opposite. Sure, I defend your freedom of choice to do what you want when you want. We cannot in the same voice then claim that death in farming is a sacred result because it is dangerous, necessary and for the better good. Culture is result of practicing traditions, consistently with a common understanding.

The holiday is not to connect service death to platitudes. It actually to honor people that died rather senselessly. I would ask what is sadder: a person that died prematurely or died prematurely as a result of a higher cause? It is natural for us to invent significance to justify the occurrence. That is why we label it the ultimate sacrifice because it helps quell the doubt of the result.

The reported stance is that military service is required to defend the state and by proxy of the state existing we have the illusion of freedom. The implication is no state/no freedom. For instance, if communism succeeded in southern Asia, then it could advance here and we would loose our country as it were and therefore freedom.

End Your Programming Routine: Not only is that what Memorial Day has become but our actions don’t respect the freedom that we proport to be so thankful for. What are you doing with your freedom? Are you buying a permit for that summer building project or to hold a garage sale, are you complaining to the police about you neighbor’s party or are you scheming because your neighbor’s grass is too tall or house is painted in an unapproved color? To embrace the true ultimate sacrifice, we need need to embrace the true concept of freedom.