As we wake up this morning, many of us have the day off from work. We have already planned many activities, probably a cookout, barbecue, time with family, several things that we actively take for granted. Every year when Memorial Day comes around, it's just what we do. We just take the day off. We spend it with family. We cook, we drink beer, We do whatever we can to enjoy the fact that we have a day off. But many of us fail to reflect on why we have the
day off. Many of us fail to reflect on the reason why today is a holiday. We need to stop and remember there's a reason we celebrate Memorial Day. And it's not just so we can cook hot dogs. It's not just so you can put a rack of ribs on your smoker. It's far more than that. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. Memorial Day is a day to honor those military servicemen and women who we have lost. It
is a day to where we honor their sacrifices. It is a day where we are supposed to sit back and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can live the life that we do today. We're supposed to be honoring those who made it possible for you to have a job in the first place that would grant you a day off. But we get so busy and so wrapped up with our everyday lives that we don't take the time to understand that these brave men who laid down their lives for us. They're the reason you're
sitting around a pool with your family. They're the reason you have your neighbors over to try that smoked brisket that you've been perfecting for months. They're the reason you've got your buddies over drinking beer and watching a ball game. We need to stop and remember these folks. We need to stop and recognize why Memorial Day exists. Memorial Day is not just a day to take off work and cook food and watch balls and drink beer. It is a day that
we are supposed to reflect. Memorial Day's origins started not long after the end of the Civil War. Communities across the war torn South, but also some in the North, began to pay homage to their fallen heroes, my visiting and decorating the graves with flowers gathered in the spring when blossoms are new and easy to find. They were making memorial Days, or Decoration Days, as they were first called, and they were solemn and widely observed occasions. Memorial
Day was first observed at Arlington National Cemetery in May of eighteen sixty. The Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, John A. Logan, presided over the ceremony and future US President James Carfield was the principal speaker. Since that time, Memorial Day has grown. It is a huge event and today we celebrate it, and there's so many stories out there of people doing more than just sitting around with their family of folks, doing something to
give back to the families the fallen. I think of my friend Don Harkness, who somewhere, starting early this morning, is standing on a street corner along with other friends and patriots, collecting money for fallen for the family of fallen soldiers. He doesn't do it for fame or notoriety. He does it to help support you See, he was a veteran himself. He's one of the ones that we still have and he's out there making a difference. I
think my grandfather, my grandfather was lucky. He was deemed to have a skill that was too important to send to Europe during World War Two. He was a typewriter repairman, and the story, as it's been told to me, is that my grandmother brought to the commanding officer's attention that he could fix his typewriter, and after he did so, he was pulled back out of
his regiment and told he had to state sized. And this was something that my grandfather felt guilty about until the day he died, because he felt like he should have been over there with those who made the ultimate sacrifice, that he should have been over there risking it. My thoughts also go back to several of the great stories that we've heard throughout the years, and we can
all name stories of military heroes. My thoughts go back to friends that I know that served, some that weren't lucky enough to come home, some that were, but have stories of bonds that they made with folks that did make
the ultimate sacrifice. And of course, one of the most infamous story in recent years of the tragic end of one of our arm service heroes is that of Pat Tillman, the NFL player who gave up the lucrative, lucrative career following the events of nine to eleven and was tragically killed in battle by friendly fire. We can talk about the cover up in those things another day, but today is a day to remember them. He was willing to make that
sacrifice despite the fact that he had that lucrative NFL career. Are men and women in uniform are heroes, and we need to remember them as such, not just a Memorial Day, but every day. But Memorial Day is special because today is the day to remember the fallen. Today is the day to pay respect, to show remembrance to those that we have lost. As each day goes by, the numbers the men who served during the Greatest Generation during
World War Two, they get smaller and smaller. That was a special generation and now we're coming up on the end of having anyone who served during that time around to even give us a remote glimpse of what they went through at
that time. So yes, today, when you're enjoying time with your family, when you're enjoying showing off those smoked barbecue ribs that you work so hard on, also take a moment to say a few words and remind your family, your friends, everyone around you that today is not just a day off of work, but today is a day that we're supposed to stop and remember
the fallen. Today is a day that we're supposed to stop and think about those that never made it home again and the fact that they were willing to make that ultimate sacrifice for each and every single one of us so that way we can live a free life. Those people are special. They deserve more than just one day. But if all you got time for is one day, make that one day count, make that one day special, and make sure that they are at the forefront of whatever family or social gathering you have
planned to day. Guys, I am Jack Fairchild's. This has been morning Coffee with the Right Side and we are a part of the Midnight Ride Network.