05/25/2026
This Memorial Day, we pause.
Not for a sale. Not for a long weekend.
We pause for them — the men and women who left home in uniform and never came back. The ones whose names are cut into stone, folded into flags, and carried forever in the hearts of the families they left behind.
They did not ask for monuments. They asked for nothing at all. They simply went when their country called, stood between us and the dark, and gave the last full measure so that the rest of us could live ordinary, peaceful lives — the very lives they would never get to finish.
We remember them today. The young and the seasoned. Those who fell in famous battles and those who fell in places most of us will never know the names of. Every one of them was someone's child. Many were someone's parent. All of them were ours.
To the Gold Star Families
Your loss is not abstract to us. We see the empty chair. We honor the price you continue to pay every single day, long after the headlines moved on. Your loved ones are not forgotten, and they never will be.
A gentle word, too, for the civilians who so generously wish to honor us. If you see a veteran this weekend, you may feel moved to thank them — and that kindness is appreciated. But today, we gently ask you to hold that thought. Memorial Day is not our day. We who served and came home have Veterans Day in November. This day belongs to the fallen — it was bought with their lives — and those of us still here would never wish to steal their honor. The greatest gift you can give us is to remember them.
So today —
Lower your voice. Visit a grave if you can. Place a flag.
Teach a child why this day matters.
And at 3:00 p.m. local time, join the National Moment of Remembrance — one minute of silence for those who gave everything.
They are why we are free.
We will remember them.
Roger
