Today is Memorial Day, the day of the year set aside to honor and reflect on those who gave their lives in service to our United States of America.
It is estimated that more than 1,300,000 Americans have died in service to our country since the Revolutionary War.
War touches all of us in some way.
Many of us have family members who served or continue to serve.
Today, let's each take just a moment to think about those who served and those who perished protecting our nation.
Happy Memorial Day.
And a poem:
Decoration Day
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!
Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.
But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.
All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!
Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow