March 25, 2009

Today is Memorial Day. It’s not Veterans Day so don’t thank a veteran. Today we remember all of those who gave their lives to protect our freedom.

Someone sent me an e-mail with pictures of cemeteries in Europe that contain our war dead from World War I and World War II.

They include: the American cemetery in Aisne Marne, France (2,289 Americans); Ardennes, Belgium (5,329); Brittany, France (4,410); Brookwood, England (468); Cambridge, England (3,812); Epinal, France (5,525); Flanders Field, Belgium (368); Florence, Italy (4,402); Henri-Chappelle, Belgium (7,992); Lorraine, France (10,489);  Luxembourg (5,076); Meuse-Arogonne (14,246); Netherlands (8,301); Normandy, France (9,387).

There are many more, but I thought we should focus on these as examples of the cost of freedom. Freedom is not the natural state of humankind, otherwise we all would be free. Bondage is the natural state. That’s why freedom must be paid for in blood. Let’s give thanks today for those who did.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist in Washington, D.C.