Let's Honor Them

I have been wanting to return to a place where my family and I visited in my teens. That place is Washington D.C., my thoughts in particular, of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. I will never forget when my Father, a Vietnam Veteran, and I walked down to the Memorial and saw the thousands of the names of the fallen heroes. The scene at Arlington is equally as impressive, with the hero's from many wars resting in eternal peace. It would be hard for me to describe Washington D.C. as a "fun" trip. For that reason it has been difficult to get my "tweenage" kids to get excited about going to visit there. So I am planning to do what any good parent would do; I am going to make them go. I feel that it's important enough to do just that. Besides, when we get there the kids natural curiosity will take over. I was reminded of this trip from yesteryear by a news story about our National cemeteries. An average of 1,800 veterans die each day, and 10 percent of them are buried in the country's 125 national cemeteries, which are expected to set a record with 107,000 interments this year. Additional National Cemeteries are planned in the future to keep up with the burial rate. Today being Memorial Day, this story really drives the point home of the sacrifice that so many brave people made in defense of their Country. Not only is it important for us to remember, but also to teach our children that Memorial Day is about more than just barbeque's and water park fun.