For Memorial Day 2010

Freedom is Not Free by Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.



A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
He'd stand out in any crowd.




I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?



How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.



I heard the sound of TAPS one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That TAPS had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea



Of unmarked graves in Arlington.




No, freedom isn't free.




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Please remember this Memorial Day that the day is
a day of Remembrance for those who have died in our Nation's service.

Please also consider observing the National Moment of Remembrance
at 3:00 pm on Memorial Day.