Memorial Day Is More Than a Weekend
Veterans, families, and community members gathered at Quincy Valley Cemetery to remember the fallen and the true cost of the freedoms Americans enjoy every day.
Memorial Day is a complicated holiday that stirs a lot of emotions.
For many Americans, it has become the unofficial beginning of summer. A long weekend filled with barbeques, camping trips, lake days, and family gatherings. And honestly, for those of us who feel the full weight of Memorial Day, it is hard to fault people for that entirely. Modern culture, advertising, media, and even political leaders have slowly helped reshape the story over time. One of our vice presidents even called it a “nice long weekend”
But culturally, we become the stories we tell ourselves.
And the story of “summer starting” is far easier to carry than the story of sacrifice, grief, loss, and bloodshed that made this country possible in the first place. We live in a culture that increasingly avoids hard truths and prefers comfortable endings. Memorial Day was never meant to be comfortable.
Today, I had the privilege of standing alongside veterans, families, survivors, and community members here in the 98848 to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation. For the people gathered at the Quincy Valley Cemetery today, Memorial Day was never just another three-day weekend.
For many, it is one of the heaviest days of the year.
TL;DR
🇺🇸 Memorial Day honors Americans who died in military service
🎖 American Legion Post #183 hosted a Memorial Day Service at Quincy Valley Cemetery
🎶 The ceremony included prayer, music, a veteran’s address, a 21-gun salute, and Taps
🪖 Volunteers placed flags throughout the cemetery to honor fallen service members from our community
💔 Memorial Day carries deep emotional weight for Gold Star Families, veterans, survivors, and friends of the fallen
📜 More than 1.3 million Americans have died in service throughout U.S. history
🇺🇸 The freedoms Americans enjoy today were purchased at a very real human cost
A Morning of Remembrance in Quincy
Today, American Legion Post #183 hosted a Memorial Day Service at the Quincy Valley Cemetery, and it was genuinely beautiful in its simplicity and sincerity.
Early this morning, volunteers placed flags throughout the cemetery in honor of fallen service members from our community. Standing among them afterward is overwhelming in a way that is hard to fully explain. Quincy is not the largest town, but there are still so many flags. So many stories. So many families forever changed.
Veterans Operation Creation singers performed the National Anthem along with several other selections. There was prayer. There was reflection. A speech from a veteran. A benediction. A 21-gun salute. And finally, Taps.
I cry every time.
There is something about Taps that cuts through all the noise and bravado. Originally known as “Extinguish Lights,” the bugle call was first used as the final signal of the day for soldiers to put out fires and lights and settle in for the night.
During one instance in the Civil War, it was used instead of a 21 Gun Salute in fear of giving away their position during a funeral. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson reportedly had it played at his funeral and its use continued to spread. By 1891, Army regulations officially required Taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.
Today, it remains one of the most hauntingly beautiful sounds in American tradition.
As the final notes echoed across the cemetery, you could feel the emotion in the air. Every veteran. Every spouse. Every child. Every friend. Every survivor carries their own story into a ceremony like this.
But there is one thing present in all of them:
An emptiness.
A space that never truly fills back in.
The Cost of Freedom
War, violence, and conflict are as old as humanity itself. The history of the world has always been written in the blood of young men and women.
And while the United States is still a relatively young nation as we approach our 250th anniversary, the American story has also been paid for in blood from the very beginning.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
That statement may make modern people uncomfortable, but history repeatedly proves it true.
Here are the best estimates historians currently have for American military deaths in major conflicts:
Revolutionary War — 29,435
War of 1812 — 20,000
Mexican-American War — 13,283
Civil War — 623,026
Spanish-American War — 2,446
World War I — 116,708
World War II — 407,316
Korean War — 36,914
Vietnam War — 58,151
Desert Storm — 269
War on Terror — more than 6,000 and still counting
That is more than 1.3 million American lives.
More than 1.3 million sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and friends.
The freedoms Americans enjoy today did not appear magically out of thin air. The ability to speak freely, worship freely, disagree openly, raise families in relative peace, and pursue opportunity has come at a staggering human cost.
As J. Reuben Clark once said, “The price of liberty is and always has been blood, human blood.”
Memorial Day exists because generations of Americans paid that price.
Memorial Day Was Born From Grief
Memorial Day originally began as “Decoration Day” in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Communities devastated by unimaginable loss gathered to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and flags. Over time, the observance spread across the nation and expanded to honor Americans lost in all wars.
The first national observance took place on May 30, 1868.
It would not officially become a federal holiday known as Memorial Day until 1971. Despite the cookouts, sales, road trips, and long weekends that grew around it, the heart of Memorial Day has always remained the same:
Remembrance.
The Weight Carried by Gold Star Families and Survivors
For Gold Star Families, Memorial Day carries a weight most people will never fully understand.
They are asked to continue living after losing someone they loved deeply. They wake up every day carrying an absence that never goes away. And often, they do it quietly while the world around them moves on.
Many learn to wear a smile simply to make other people more comfortable around their pain.
For surviving veterans, Memorial Day can reopen wounds that never truly healed. Survivor’s guilt is real. The loss of a brother or sister in arms is something many veterans struggle to even put into words. For some, that pain leads to isolation, addiction, depression, self-medication, or darker places.
And for friends, there is simply a hole left behind. Other friendships may come and go through life, but no one ever fully replaces the friend who never made it home.
What Memorial Day Means to the 98848
Here in the 98848, Memorial Day still feels personal.
You can see it in the flags planted carefully by volunteers. You can hear it in the silence during Taps. You can feel it in the faces of veterans standing quietly beside family members who understand this day differently than most.
In communities like Quincy, George, Winchester, Crescent Bar, and Sunland Estates, patriotism is usually not loud or performative. It shows itself through presence. Through service. Through showing up.
And today, people showed up.
Not because it was convenient.
Not because it was trendy.
But because remembering matters.
What Memorial Day Asks of Us
There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying time with family this weekend. There is nothing wrong with barbecues, laughter, or celebrating the freedoms we have been given.
But somewhere in the middle of all of it, Memorial Day asks something simple of us:
Remember them.
Remember the people who never came home.
Remember the families still carrying the weight of that loss.
Remember that freedom has never been free, no matter how casually we sometimes treat it.
Because long after the grills cool down, the lake trips end, and everyone goes back to work Tuesday morning, there are families across this country who will still be carrying that absence with them.
And they always will.
