In times like these, Memorial Day shouldn't be treated like most national holidays. It deserves better.
For far too many people, Memorial Day is defined more by backyard cookouts and department store sales than by the memory of the servicemen and women who died defending this country. In this way, the day is much like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas - a national holiday diminished by commercialism and indifference.
This is no appeal to partisanship. The men and women of our armed forces are citizen soldiers, not members of sectarian brigades. They have sworn an oath to the nation, not to the Republican or Democratic parties. And they do their duty regardless of which political party controls the White House.
So it shouldn't matter whether you support or oppose U.S. involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan. On this Memorial Day, we all ought to honor the more than 5,000 Americans who have died in this conflict.
As Abraham Lincoln said of the Civil War dead in his Gettysburg Address, they gave their "last full measure of devotion" to this nation. So it isn't asking too much for us to take a day to remember them.
Ironically, while many of the politicians debating the U.S. role in Iraq and Afghanistan are well-known to us, the names of most of our war dead are not. For most Americans, they're just numbers in a growing list of men and women who didn't return home alive.
We owe it to their families and friends to pause on Memorial Day - not for a grilled hamburger or a department store sale - but to praise the courage and sacrifices of those who have died in Iraq. The debate that now rages between the Republican White House and the Democratically controlled Congress over U.S. involvement in Iraq shouldn't blind us to this responsibility.
If ever there was a time for the people of this country to find common ground, to stand together and put aside our differences, this Memorial Day is it.
