Memorial Day is an American holiday honoring the men and women who died in America’s wars. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War. Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings, and participating in parades. Unofficially, it also marks the beginning of the summer season and is often the first weekend that we pack up the kids and beer cooler and head for the lake or beach, often with little regard for the meaning of this day, simply a day off from work or school.

I’m a bit of a news junkie. I spend way more time than I should monitoring hard news and faux news across the political spectrum. As you other news junkies know, it can be exhausting sorting out what to believe given such divergent presentations from so-called news sources. What I find troubling during this national political season is the denigration of the democratic institutions and processes that have kept this nation intact and working for the past 250+ years. It seems that the whole notion of democracy is trivialized, with little understanding of its fragility and the sacrifices made to keep it in place—sacrifices that have cost the lives of thousands of American military men and women during multiple wars.

This Memorial Day, I wanted to be reminded of the actual number of American men and women lost in our wars. The data I found via Wikipedia is shown in the table below.

The sacrifice reflected in these numbers is daunting and disheartening, given that, today, few people understand why those sacrifices were made. That is, I think we as a nation have, in large part, forgot the meaning and importance of democracy and the fact that these hundreds of thousands died protecting it. I think most of us honor our war dead as heroes and appreciate their sacrifice. Still, others will regard them as “suckers and losers” with little association of their sacrifice with the freedoms we enjoy.

I am a Vietnam War veteran. I lost friends in battle whose dead bodies I carried in my aircraft. For me, Memorial Day is personal. As I enjoy the day, I will think about my friends. I will remember our times together and think about their lives that could have been had they survived these past 50 years. And beyond Memorial Day, during this fraught political season, I will ask those advocating authoritarianism and fascism in lieu of democracy: For what did they die?

One does not need military experience, much less combat experience, to appreciate why we honor our fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. We should all take a moment this May 27th to remind ourselves and our politicians that we indeed want to preserve our democracy if, for no other reason, so that our fallen heroes’ lives were not lost in vain.

If you would like to read some personal stories about my Vietnam War experiences, go HERE.