In this day and age we glorify the individual and forget that it is the collective—the community—that holds us together. Sites I have visited on past Memorial Day weekends, such as the U.S.S. Arizona memorial and the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial in Hawaii, are “places where moments in personal history become part of the flow of collective history.” History that transcends individual experiences and lifetimes.

We are judged not just by what we build, but by what we choose to save and remember from the past.

For this Memorial Day remembrance, I point to past essays and remembrances on MORE TO COME that speak to sacrifice and these community values.

• D-Day and the ongoing fight against government by the few and for the few (2023)

• Do not abandon us to our foolishness and fallenness (2022)

• Remembering the uncounted (2020)

• Why we memorialize and remember sacred places (2014)

With profound gratefulness on this Memorial Day for our men and women in service who made the supreme sacrifice.

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo of U.S. graves in Normandy by DJB.