A Memorial Day message from Sen. Max Wise
Memorial Day often arrives in small measures. The first flags appear along a cemetery road. The hush that settles over Main Street or a town square before a bugler plays. The worn photograph picked up and held a little longer than usual.
For many Americans, the holiday arrives alongside cookouts, crowded lakes and the long-awaited beginning of summer. Before all that, Memorial Day asks something quieter and much more meaningful of all of us. It asks us to remember not simply the history of war, but the stories of the courageous men and women who lived through it.
Not simply the history of war, but the people inside it.
A son who never returned home to the family farm. A young Marine whose laughter still echoes in old home videos. A medic who wrote letters home between deployments and never got the chance to write another. The freedoms we enjoy every day were secured by ordinary Americans who answered an extraordinary call, knowing the cost might be everything.
More than 150 years ago, communities began gathering after the Civil War to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers. What became Memorial Day was never rooted in celebration, but in remembering. In grief. In gratitude.
Kentucky’s native son, President Abraham Lincoln, once called on Americans to ensure that “these dead shall not have died in vain.” Time has passed that responsibility down to us.
We honor the fallen not with ceremonies and speeches, but in the way we live. In how we teach our children about sacrifice and the responsibility they will one day inherit to ensure these brave men and women are never forgotten.
This Memorial Day, we remember and honor those like Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, a daughter of Bardstown, who served with the 99th Air Refueling Squadron. Her final mission and those of her five other servicemembers ended in the deserts of western Iraq during Operation Epic Fury. We also remember Army Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, a son of Glendale, who succumbed to wounds sustained during an enemy attack at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.
This weekend, many will enjoy the noise and motion of life, and they should. The many blessings we have as Americans and Kentuckians should not be taken for granted. They are blessings many around the world could never dream of, and they are only possible because of heroes like Ashley Pruitt, Benjamin Pennington and thousands of others who have answered a call of duty for their nation and their fellow citizens.
This Memorial Day, may we pause long enough to remember them. May we speak their names, tell their stories and never allow their sacrifices to become cliché, or distant and abstract.
Freedom has a price. Memorial Day reminds us to never forget those who paid it.
I hope you will join us this Memorial Day in Campbellsville as our community gathers to honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation.
I hope you may take time to join us this weekend for Memorial Day in Campbellsville as our community gathers to honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation. Together, we remember their sacrifice and the freedoms they secured for generations of Americans.
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Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, represents the 16th Senate District, including Adair, Allen, Metcalfe, Monroe, and Taylor Counties and eastern Warren County. Wise serves as Senate majority floor leader. He is a member of the Senate Committees on Education, and Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor. As part of Senate leadership, Wise also serves on the Legislative Research Commission, the Rules Committee, and the Committee on Committees.
(Dustin R. Isaacs – Office of Senate Majority Floor Leader Max Wise)