It’s Memorial Day, and it’s raining.

I think patriotism is a complicated topic. I think it is a good thing to be proud of your nation. But, I think it’s a bad thing to swerve to jingoism.

So, for this post, I’d like to focus on those men and women who ventured abroad, fought, and gave up their lives. For this post, I also would like to focus on their families.

Whether certain wars were justifiable or not, whether national policies were true or not, the fact remains that many of our youngest citizens endured a great deal of suffering, and, in the end, death.

So, I choose to remember them.

May we all strive to live positive, wholesome, and productive lives with the freedoms we have been given. This is an election year, and it will be a complicated one.

But, I’m choosing to remember the fallen and the burdens that their survivors carry with them. Regardless of your political views, I think we all can agree that those soldiers deserve to be remembered.