As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of freedom, there will be fireworks lighting the sky, parades filling our streets, music echoing through our towns, and families gathering together across the nation.
There should be.
Freedom is worth celebrating.
But freedom is also worth remembering.
Recently, I watched the newly released film Pressure. Like many Americans, I was familiar with the story of D-Day. What I wasn't familiar with was Exercise Tiger, the tragic rehearsal for the Normandy invasion that claimed more than 700 American lives before D-Day ever began. It reminded me that history is filled with stories most of us have never heard. Stories of events that happened as a result of incredibly difficult decisions.
It also made me think about the incredible weight carried by those who had to make those decisions.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower knew that every order he gave would send young men into battle, and many would never return. He also knew that failing to act could cost even more lives, and perhaps the freedom of entire nations. Before the invasion, he even drafted a letter accepting full responsibility if the mission failed.
That burden did not end with World War II.
Following the attacks of September 11, then-Colonel John Mulholland faced a different battlefield but the same responsibility. He personally selected the soldiers who would become Task Force Dagger, knowing that they would be sent into incredible danger. He knew that they might not be successful. Imagine having to bear the responsibility of that decision.
As Executive Director of Wreaths Across America, I have had the privilege of hearing thousands of stories from military families. One thing is certain: behind every name on a headstone is a family whose life was forever changed.
Behind every conflict were leaders who had that agonizing responsibility of sending young men and women into harm's way.
As we celebrate 250 years of America, remember that our freedom today was paid for by someone else's sacrifice yesterday.
That is why we say the names.
They are not statistics.
They were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.
They laughed.
They dreamed.
They loved this country enough to place its future ahead of their own.
When we say their names, we acknowledge their humanity. When we tell their stories, we preserve their legacy. When we teach our children why they served, we protect the future they fought to give us.
The mission of Wreaths Across America has always been about more than placing a wreath. It is about acknowledging and passing on responsibility. It is about helping the next generation understand that freedom is only preserved if they understand and value it enough to defend it.
I believe the greatest gift we can give America on her 250th birthday is a generation of young people who love this country, understand the price of liberty, know the names of those who preserved it, and are willing to carry that responsibility forward.
If we fail to teach them the true cost of freedom, those lessons will be forgotten, or replaced by something far less enduring.
The wreaths we place each December are symbols, but the lessons they represent must live every day of the year.
So as we celebrate this Fourth of July, and as America begins commemorating 250 years of freedom, let us remember those who made the difficult decisions, those who answered the call, and those who gave everything.
Then let us do our part.
Remember them.
Honor them.
Teach the next generation.
Because freedom is never inherited.
It is remembered.
It is honored.
And each generation must choose to preserve it.
