We all celebrated Memorial Day yesterday. While for most it is a day for family and friends to celebrate the start of summer around a barbecue, for others it is a somber day of remembrance. It is a day to recognize the sacrifice hundreds of thousands have given in order to preserve the liberties and freedoms we experience in this country.  In honor of those fallen heroes, the men and women of our armed forces, I dedicate this blog post to them.  

Every day we need to live in memoriam to those that sacrificed for us to live in freedom, otherwise we start to take it for granted and our appreciation grows into a mentality of entitlement.
 
Each day you and I go to work. Those that own businesses have the freedom to sell whatever they want (with some small restrictions) and take the profits and do with them what they want.  This freedom comes at a cost.  Prior to 1776, industry was taxed into submission. Today, you and I have the freedom to experience life to its fullness of the American dream.

With a lot of hard work and determination, we have the freedom in this country to do almost anything, own anything, live anywhere, and love whom we want to love. This freedom came at a cost.  Hundreds of thousands have died fighting for that freedom. The freedom that protects your fight to drive that gas sipping car or gas guzzling 700Hp hot rod. When was the last time you sat still to think that the freedom you and I enjoy everyday cost someone their life?
 
We take for granted the simplest things in life that others in other countries do not have the freedom to enjoy, such as:

• Free TV – Not government controlled

• Free Radio – Not government controlled

• You have the freedom to buy whatever car you want

• You have the freedom to live where you want

• You have the freedom to work where you want

• You have the freedom to serve or not to serve in the armed forces

• You have the freedom to run a business or be an employee

• You have the freedom to worship God or not

• You even have the free right to speech - even if it is against those that earned us all these freedoms

Eleanor Roosevelt once said,  “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”

Are you cognizant of the cost of the freedom you are enjoying right now, reading this blog without government intervention? On this day after Memorial Day, remember those who sacrificed for you to give you freedom. It cost them everything.  An attitude of appreciation for what you have, the freedoms you enjoy, keeps you grounded in sobering reality.