Just about every ride the Orange County American Legion Riders begins at the County Veterans Cemetery, and for a good reason. “We start from here because of these people,” I tell the riders gathered there, pointing at the graves. Memorial Day isn’t just about remembering the sacrifices of those who gave the last full measure of devotion to the ideal of America for one day. It’s about making good on them every day.
“Someday we’re going to be where they are,” I explain to fellow veterans, police, firefighters, first responders and others riding with us before we mount our motorcycles, for example, to roar into schools to help run a service-learning event based on the National Service Ride’s answer to the question: How does what we learned about service and sacrifice get passed on to the next generation?
“Our mission is not complete until we have helped pass that baton to the next generation, giving them a chance to go forward with what we’ve learned and make their own way into the future, just as we did,” as I say in the project video.
Fulfilling the promise our founders laid out requires a perpetual process of passing the baton of leadership so the next generation can take a journey to find their own answer to the question of what it means to be an American in the world we live in today. By encouraging and empowering them to do good work, at home as well as abroad, they can see how service to others benefits everyone including themselves, helping to find the authenticity and connection in our lives that social media and reality shows can’t.
Each of us can set that example, without waiting for political leadership. Citizenship, after all, isn’t just residence in the same way that patriotism isn’t just something you feel or post in a meme — it’s something you do, as the flags on the graves should be reminding us.
The national mythology that summons our psychic as well as physical energies should champion role models from all walks of life and every corner of our country, tapping the strengths of a diverse society under the rubric of e pluribus unum. Volunteerism is the way Americans reconcile individualism and community. It defines our national character as well as brands our sense of Americanism. Our heroes are avatars of our values in action that help form our personal and national identities.
If Americans truly wish to honor those in service, in and out of uniform, who have given their lives for us, then we should strive to make this a country worth their sacrifice. It doesn’t require a uniform or even a program; it begins with simple acts of kindness, right at home. And when you serve your community, you serve your country.
Our service to others, large and small, every day helps make good of the sacrifices of those we remember this weekend. The best way to stand up for all the fallen is to be citizens as responsible to our neighbors as to our nation, because they are one and the same. Only united can we stand the tests of our times.
Christopher Holshek, Colonel, U.S. Army(Ret.) is Coordinator of the American Legion Riders in Orange County and founder of the National Service Ride.
Monroe