Memorial Day is a time for reflection, remembrance, and respect

1,303,705 Remember that number. It is important. There will be a test later.

Memorial Day is this weekend. It is a busy weekend, filled with activities and memories being made. It unofficially marks the beginning of Wisconsin’s short summer season.

It is a time for people to come together. Families and friends will gather for cookouts. The garden centers and greenhouses will be busy with people getting plants for their yards and gardens as many wait until Memorial Day weekend to plant outdoors. Others will be heading to their cabins or lake homes and will be spending time opening them up for the summer season.

The leaves are a thousand shades of vibrant green and the blossoms of trilliums and the bouquet of spring wildflowers are in full bloom in the forests and fields.

The springtime hues continue in cemeteries where whites, purples and yellows of the wildflowers give way to the bold red, white and blue of American flags. Each Memorial Day, volunteers place tens of thousands of American flags on the graves of veterans and especially those who died in the service of this country.

Aside from all the other trappings, Memorial Day is a day to remember the fallen.

It is the day set aside each year to remember those who gave, in the words of president Abraham Lincoln, “The last full measure of devotion.” It is the day when we as a country take the time to gather at monuments and around worn gravestones to read the roll call of lives cut short in the defense of freedom.

Politicians, students and veterans will read speeches and poems. Bells will be rung, songs sung and a bugler’s sad notes will linger in the air like a long good-bye.

Memorial Day is a somber day. It is a day of remembered sacrifice in the name of service. The day holds special meaning to the veterans and families who lost comrades, brothers and sons to the ravages of war.

It is a day when all Americans should take time to attend a ceremony, or at the very least, to pause in remembrance.

More than 1.3 million Americans have given up their lives in service to America. From the estimated 20,000 killed in the battles of the Revolutionary War, to the 620,000 estimated servicemen who fell on battlefields in the Civil War, and the tens of thousands who laid down their lives in conflicts and wars in the past century.

Attending a Memorial Day ceremony is a way to honor the memories of those individuals. It is a day to remember and to not allow that sacrifice to be forgotten or taken for granted. Equally as important is to keep the memory of their sacrifices in your heart and minds throughout the year. Do not squander the precious gift of freedom or give it over to demagogues or those whose goal is to amass power or pad their own pockets at the expense of American ideals and freedoms.

Take time this Memorial Day to attend one of the area services. Take an hour or so from your holiday weekend to honor the memories of the fallen and pay your respects.