Nonetheless, it is also important that we remember this is the particular day we pay tribute to the men and women who made the supreme sacrifice so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we hold so dearly.
I typically spend a part of almost any Memorial Day in a cemetery. Maybe it's seeing the tomb of my parents, perhaps it is seeing a cemetery at a village I have not been to before, or maybe you may find me wandering the rows of rocks and memorials in Arlington Cemetery in Washington, but I am almost always in a cemetery for at least a few moments on this day.
The Peninsula is the place everything becomes quite real on Memorial Day. To see the veterans mark on the tombstones of so many who perished in battle would be a sobering experience. We thank people who survived the wars because of their services. We can never repay the debt that we owe to people who never came home.
Each one the communities within our listening area have memorials to people who perished in war. A few of these memorials are nothing more than a little plaque with a couple titles on it, or possibly a simple engraved stone. Additional tributes include a statue, a flag and possibly a few patriotic adornments. However large or small it is, nevertheless, it is right to cease for a minute at these memorials, and at the local cemeteries at Otsego, Delaware, and Chenango counties and reflect about the souls who are no longer with us who died so that we might live free.
It's the right thing to do.
