Just as you don’t have to give unconditional support to a president and his war to be a patriot, you don’t have to go to parades and cemeteries on Memorial Day weekend in order to honor those who have given their lives in service.

I think it’s partly because of the times we live in. Even if you try to avoid the nightly news, there are reports every day of more sacrifice. You just have to get past the overwhelming numbers and realize that it’s human lives and not merely statistics that are being counted up.

It’s easy to take things for granted. I look out my back door and see a field that’s green-turning-golden brown, and mighty oak trees lined up on the horizon, and skies that are not always blue but are usually clean, with air that I can breathe. All of those things would be here without the human element, but since humans threaten them, humans need to work together to protect them. Just like freedom.

Nothing worth having comes without cost, and as we remember those who paid the price on our behalf, we have a duty to be sure that the sacrifices made are for causes that are worthy. The only way to do that is to question the motives and the reasoning of those who make the big decisions. The more closely we scrutinize our leaders, the greater tribute we pay to those whose duty it is to follow their orders.

It does no honor to those who have died for our freedoms if we give up those freedoms in the name of fear. They didn’t give their lives so that we could live in shadows, afraid to speak out. The truth will come out eventually, you know. It always does, and better now than later. We want to see more of our soldiers in parades and fewer of them in cemeteries.