As I sit here in a rehabilitation facility with my 96 year old father, I've been reflecting on the meaning of Memorial Day. I've been thinking about all those amazing sevice people who fought and died to uphold the values we hold dear - honor, duty, freedom, liberty, equality, equity.
But then, as I am wont to do, my thoughts turned to darker matters. I thought of our Supreme Court and its members like Justice Alito and Justice Thomas, who have corruptly and unethically acted with the most craven of purposes: self-serving, greedy, bigoted, and biased jurists. Their behaviors are a slap in the face of our veterans who died defending the American creed. They dishonor the people and system of justice they have sworn to defend and protect. How is it that such people have become the ultimate arbiters of what is right and what is wrong in American jurisprudence? It is disgusting and debased and disheartening.
Yet, then I thought again about the servicemen and servicewomen who fought so bravely and heroically and who gave up their very lives in defense of American ideals. They never would have countenanced turning tail and running. They did their duty. They never gave up and they gave their all for all of us.
Thus, to honor their memory, we too, must never give up, no matter the odds. We must continue to raise our voices in protest against the forces who would destroy what our dead battled so valiently to preserve. Let's keep our faith that justice will prevail and let's keep on fighting to fulfill the promise of America. It is the least we can do to honor those heroes we think about on Memorial Day.