What does Memorial Day mean to you?
Friends,
Cookouts, fun on the lake, a trip to the beach, and the Coca-Cola 600.
These are all often the first things that come to mind when we hear Memorial Day Weekend. While these things are all good, especially after a year of lockdowns and social distancing, it's important that we remember the true meaning of Memorial Day.
The Bible tells us in John 15:13, that "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
We hear this verse a lot, especially around Memorial Day each year. But not many of us know personally what this verse really means.
I had the honor of being at Fort Bragg on Tuesday for the first of several Memorial Day events throughout the week including placing flags at the Oakwood Cemetery with the American Legion in Concord, honoring our troops at the Coca-Cola 600, and joining the Kannapolis annual Memorial Day event. Tuesday's ceremony at Fort Bragg honored the fallen Soldiers of the 3rd Special Forces Group. While there, I met many who had lost loved ones including a Gold Star mom, a 7-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old boy.
Memorial Day is about sacrifice. We honor the sacrifice of those lost in the service of our country. But Memorial Day is also about the family members who are left behind. They pay a heavy price for the freedom we enjoy.
Sacrifice is another word that gets thrown around a lot. But not a lot of us really stop to think about what it means. Just last week I read a book by Michelle Black, called Sacrifice, that defines it perfectly.
Michelle's husband, Bryan, was a Green Beret stationed at Fort Bragg. On October 4, 2017, Bryan and his team were ambushed by a large terrorist force near the village of Tongo Tongo in Niger.
Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, LaDavid Johnson, and Jeremiah Johnson were killed that day.
I have worn each of their names on a black metal bracelet on my wrist every day since their surviving team members honored me with it in 2017. It is a constant reminder of their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families.
Here's how Bryan's Gold Star widow defines sacrifice:
"When we use the word sacrifice, we often imagine one act. Really, sacrifice is a way of life. Sacrifice goes on and on once you've committed to it. We began sacrificing the day Bryan signed on to the Army and left me alone with two babies while he went to boot camp. That is when sacrifice begins for all military families.
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Each year, there were sacrifices made with the understanding that one day our family might have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
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Sacrifice does not even end when your husband's life does. For my sons, they have lost the father who would teach them how to throw and catch a ball, tie a tie, be a good sport, time a good joke, catch a fish, talk to a girl they like.
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The sacrifice made by the men and women protecting our freedom plays out over generations. Their husbands, their wives, their children, their grandchildren. Their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, their sisters. It also plays out in the lives of those who stood beside them in battle and had to carry the news and the scars back home with them."
This Memorial Day, and every day, let's remember all of those who have lost and sacrificed. May God give them peace, and may we all resolve to live up to the sacrifices which have made our freedoms and way of life possible.
Until next week,
Richard Hudson
Member of Congress