Thank you to our fallen military heroes

I was taught many lessons growing up that have served me well. One was to always say, �Thank you.� It�s a lesson I�ve used all my life. Memorial Day is no exception. In fact, it is one of the most significant days to reflect and express a thankful heart.

People always confuse Veterans Day with Memorial Day. Veterans Day honors all who have served in the U.S. military. Memorial Day, however, is for paying tribute to those who died in service to the country. It is always fitting to thank everyone who has worn the uniform, and I do, yet those who gave it all, who gave their lives, have a unique place in my heart.

This is not the first time I�ve written about this, and it will not be the last because it is always appropriate to communicate gratitude to those who are no longer here to receive that gratitude. We do it anyway. That�s what Monday was all about. It�s really what each day should be about because each day reveals another reason to be grateful to those who have died.

Americans are divided in so many directions. We disagree about so many things. We fight about almost everything � from issues as serious as gun laws and immigration to silly debates over �Yanny� vs. �Laurel.� Everyone has an opinion � and, of course, everyone believes he or she is correct. This is neither likely to change, nor does it need to change because, as Americans, we get to have our own opinions and to vocalize them. We have privileges � we call them �rights� � some nations cannot fathom, much less tolerate. As Americans, we get to express our perspectives while criticizing dissenters. How is this possible? Our heroes are willing to put everything on the line to secure and preserve those privileges/rights that epitomize America, the greatest nation on God�s earth. And some of those heroes have gone on before us.

So once again, I say, �Thank you� to those who paid the ultimate price. They are not the only ones I thank, however. I also thank their loved ones, who lost those who were more to them than a uniform, a branch of the armed forces, a soldier. That is who they were to the rest of us, but to their loved ones, they were more. The fallen were dads and moms and siblings and sons and daughters. They were their whole world, and they sacrificed their world for our nation. Tradition marks Memorial Day the way you may have marked it Monday � with barbecues and delicious food, with opening the pool for the season, with remembering those who have died in service, of course, and whatever else your family does on this holiday � and these families have traditions and memories, also. But with those, they hurt in a way we will never understand unless we can relate to their loss because of a similar loss of our own.

We take much for granted. We enjoy freedom without taking time to consider � really consider � its exorbitant price, which we cannot measure in U.S. dollars. It is measured, rather, in marked and unmarked graves, in empty places at dinner tables and broken hearts and lives.

May freedom ever be measured, too, in the exceptionalism we have come to expect in America, in grateful hearts and in our own willingness to defend our liberties in whatever way we are called to do so. We may never face death as these soldiers did, but we each have our own price to pay as we contribute to the country we are honored to call home.

Manners are growing increasingly scarce these days. You can hardly get folks to respond to a good-natured �Good morning� or wave back to a neighbor in greeting, much less to say, �Thank you� for a kind gesture. We drop the ball constantly, but when it comes to honoring the fallen, who fell for us, we must not drop the ball. Let us remain thankful to them, realizing we, at the very least, owe them that.

Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member. Contact her at aross@semissourian.com.