Memorial Day is a differentkind of holiday. More a day for honoring and remembering than purecelebration. In America, it's different in another way, it'sdifferent because we support the values our heroes died for, not justthe sacrifice they made for their country. While virtually everycountry honors their war dead, only a few also honor the cause orcauses they died for. In former communist and fascist countries,those who honor their dead likely reject the political causes theydied for. In some, perhaps most cases, the honor is for protectingtheir homelands and answering the call of duty. In some cases, theywere pressed into service to fight for a cause not their own, butthey are honored nonetheless.

That's not to say that ourvalues would be or should be in complete accord with each and everyAmerican fallen hero. The war against the Native American tribescomes to mind. Did they fall in protection of their loved ones, orin an effort subdue a people? Maybe both? Most importantly however,those men and women we honor were our family, friends, ourcountrymen. They were people who fought for a cause greater thanthemselves. They fought and died for a dream, an ideal we call“America”. It's an idea we might spend the rest of our daysperfecting, but a worthy one. The challenge is to keep that idea,that all men are created equal under God, that values life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness, be the reason we fight, if we mustfight. We honor our fallen by honoring those ideals, so that theirsacrifices will never be in vain.

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