Memories for Memorial Day

And a look to the future

On this Memorial Day, we can’t help but wonder about the future of our nation.

We honor those who gave their lives to protect and defend this land and its ideals. While we also recognize the deep imperfections of our history and our uneven and sometimes tragic path toward progress, which has included wars not always just or in service to our nobler instincts.

We are at a perilous juncture where we speak without hyperbole about the “death of democracy.” Unlike the ultimate fate that awaits us all, however, there is no inevitability of death, no finality, when it comes to our country or its freedoms. 

We have the power not only to re-infuse the United States with life but also to reinvigorate our founding principles with fresh agency and action. As this nation has aged through the centuries, it has actually become a healthier democracy, more true to the spirit that gave it life in the first place.

But our growth has come with great sacrifice, by those who served in uniform and by those who marched and voted, organized and resisted, taught and nurtured. Many of these women and men also paid the ultimate price in service to their country.

When I was a child, there were millions of veterans still living from the horrific wars of the 20th century. They carried with them the memories of friends and loved ones who perished. Now the ranks of these veterans have been greatly winnowed by time, and with them an active memory of the scale of those conflicts and what they stood for. Meanwhile, the wars of my adulthood—Afghanistan and Iraq—the longest in American history, still echo in the divisiveness of our current times and its chaotic world order.

When I think about the veterans of my childhood, I also remember those who fought domestically in struggles just as meaningful for the endurance of this nation—for civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, and many other campaigns for a more just and inclusive union. Those struggles obviously continue, even as the leaders of the past have passed on. Meanwhile, the fight for democracy sits at a more dangerous place than any since perhaps the Civil War.

There is a lot to memorialize on this Memorial Day. I am thinking of many who touched my life, who helped make this country better in ways both sweeping and intimate, who are no longer here—family members, colleagues, teachers, and friends. I honor them today—a parade of faces and voices remembered through smiles, words, and moments still vivid despite the passage of years.

We can draw strength from our memories. We can work to inspire future generations, just as past generations inspired us. We can take a moment to reflect on the many meanings of service and then dedicate ourselves to serving our nation in its current time of need.