Paul Chehade - The True Meaning of Memorial Day.

Paul Chehade – The True Meaning of Memorial Day.

On this Memorial Day, let us remember those who gave their lives to safeguard freedom by Paul Chehade.

What are you doing this Memorial Day? Will you be sitting by the pool, sipping on a cool drink and enjoying the start of summer?  Or will you have a family cookout?  Will you use the three-day weekend to rest, or maybe catch up on your chores?

I was asked this question a couple of days ago, and I was shocked at the shallow view so many of us have of this somber day.  A friend suggested this was a good time to shop.  My mailboxes (physical as well as virtual) are full of store ads and flyers announcing the doorbuster prices on this weekend’s specials.  Is this what Memorial Day has been reduced to?

Memorial Day is a day of reflection, a time set aside for us to remember those who have fought and died for America.  These brave and women gave their lives so that you and I might have safety and freedom.  Although it became an official federal holiday in 1971, Decoration Day (as it was originally called) has been observed in some fashion since just after the Civil War.  It was customary for people to decorate the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Surely many people are commemorating those loved ones who paid the ultimate price.  But for the rest of us, let’s take at least a moment from our usual frantic pace and return to the roots of this day.  I ask that you keep in your thoughts and prayers those have died to defend our precious republic.  What’s more, let us extend our condolences to the families of these honored dead, those who, in the words of Lincoln, “have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

May God bless you and keep you, and God bless America!

Paul Chehade:.
Honor and Truth