Happy Memorial Day!

And what else is government, but our continuing attempt to realize an enlightened society?

It’s a sad day, a proud day, and after 50 years of wars we’re less than enthusiastic about, a troubled day.

But our soldiers have, in any and nearly every case, sacrificed more than any of us. Especially, perhaps, when we send them into harms’ way without clear purpose, their duty is the heaviest of weights.

May all we American citizens remember that what we guard and fight for and work in our own way to protect is freedom: not the cliché-fueled, hollow freedom that politicians shout about but rather: the freedoms outlined in our Bill of Rights: to assemble, to speak truth to power, to criticize without fear of retribution, to rule our government and not the other way around…

…to live lives of love and dignity.

Taken in Columbia Cemetery, 200 feet from my home: