Letter to the Editor: On Memorial Day and beyond, ‘we must remember’

People often say, “Forget the past,” or “Don’t look back.” We have all heard someone say, “Why live in the past? We’re all about the future.”

We are getting ready for another presidential campaign in this country. Most candidates are not going to say, “Let’s go in reverse. Let’s go back to the good old days.” Most campaigns and most people want to look to the future and leave the past in the past. Don’t look back. Don’t remember. Don’t be concerned about recollections.

I believe there is a time for moving forward and not letting your past grip you and paralyze you. But there are times where remembering, looking back and recollecting what has happened — it is good for the soul, and sometimes, it is good for the soul of a country. If there was ever a time for looking back and remembering, carefully remembering, it is Memorial Day weekend.

We often take our kids to a place like Disney World or a water park. We may even get a chance to take our families to the biggest hole in the ground in our country — the glorious Grand Canyon.

There is one place, and some others like it, that is sacred ground. We should take our kids and families to the sacred ground of places like Arlington (Virginia) National Cemetery.

Just two hours from Dover Air Force Base (where those who die in conflict come back into this country), at Arlington, there are over 639 acres of sacred ground. Row after row after row of simple white crosses line the consecrated place where soldiers and soldiers’ families have been laid to rest. Row after row of simple white crosses that tell the simple story: Our liberties and freedoms were worth defending and worth dying for. To be there with those memories — it is breathtaking, and there is an overwhelming sense of peace to be there.

Places like Arlington truly represent sacred ground for sacred memories.

We must remember. We must look back. We must carefully and consciously think of these lives that were broken and lost for the sake of our free nation. On Memorial Day weekend and beyond, we must preserve the memory of those who lost their lives in the defense of the United States of America. If we don’t remember — may the God who gave us these freedoms help us.

Lance Wager

Dover