Today we remember those people in the U.S. Military who have died in service to our country. We commemorate them in many official and unofficial ways. I suppose those who feel it most deeply are those who have lost loved ones in war. As a nation we mourn with them today.
What do we remember today? We remember those who gave the one thing everyone has to give for a cause greater than themselves. Liberty stands tall as the cause most important in the U.S. This is especially poignant to me when I think of the number of non-White soldiers whose liberty was not what it should have been–and yet they served and died anyway. There is no way to minimize their nobility. It is also poignant to remember that the war that cost the most American lives was fought between the states, where brothers fought brothers. It’s funny how so many times in war, the greatest nobility is found lower in the ranks rather than higher.
This day reminds us that we are always poised on the knife-edge between centering ourselves and descending into nothingness, or putting something truly greater than ourselves in the center and rising to nobility. Only the latter is the truly human choice.