Memorial Day’s meaning

Memorial Day is coming up this Monday.

Please remember that Memorial Day is not a time to celebrate any living person; on this day we honor those women and men who died in the service of this great nation. Period.

It is not “Veterans’ Day,” which occurs in November. Thank a vet every day of the year, but on Memorial Day, our thoughts and our memories should be only with those American military personnel who sacrificed their lives while serving us all.

To celebrate any living person with the flag of the United States of America on Memorial Day is enormously disrespectful to those military fallen who died defending it.

And please: Don’t greet others with “Happy Memorial Day.” The holiday is funerary, not celebratory. It’s a time to reflect on the sacrifices made by others so that we can enjoy these sacrosanct freedoms which we all share here today, in America, regardless of which side of the aisle we claim as our own. Neither service nor sacrifice recognize political delineations, so please put that aside on this one day of remembrance. This is no time for politics.

Over a million American soldiers have died for this country so that we can enjoy weekends like this one. Don’t dishonor them by flying flags for living and/or non-military persons.

Let’s all earn those real sacrifices borne by our military’s fallen by never forgetting them. Thank you for thanking them.

Jay Westerveld

Sugar Loaf