EDITOR’S NOTE: Larry Obhof was the former president of the Ohio Senate from 2017 to 2020. He represented Ohio’s 22nd Senate District (consisting of Medina, Ashland, and Richland Counties, as well as portions of Holmes County) from 2011-2020.
As we celebrate Memorial Day this year, please remember the purpose of the holiday. Memorial Day is about much more than cookouts or getting an extra day off of work. We should never forget what we are recognizing.
We are honoring the hundreds of thousands of men and women who gave all that they had, including their lives, to protect our freedom and security.
The Book of John tells us that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” American history is replete with heroes who did just that. These people were our family, our friends, and our neighbors. They each chose something greater than themselves. They gave their lives to protect our way of life and to promote the values of liberty and democracy in foreign lands.
Make no mistake, we owe these heroes a debt that we can never repay. We live in the most free and most prosperous country in the history of the world. Each of us has opportunities that our forebears could have only imagined. But those freedoms were not granted to us by luck or by some accident of history.
They were given to us by our brothers and sisters—and they came at a heavy price. Hundreds of thousands of brave Americans spilled their blood and gave their lives to make it happen.
Memorial Day caps of a month of remembrance. Earlier this month we marked the sacrifices of first responders — and more specifically, police officers—with National Police Week and Peace Officers’ Memorial Day. Now, this weekend, we remember and honor the military men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our nation.
Memorial Day gives us the opportunity to remember their boldness, their courage and their sacrifice.
But we must do more than that. We must strive to keep faith with them and should honor their sacrifice through our actions every day. Our state and federal governments should do everything they can to support Gold Star Families.
As individuals, we should live the ideals that our soldiers were defending, by promoting liberty and equality in our daily lives. And as a community, we should prove our gratitude by stepping up to support our veterans, our first responders, and the families of our fallen soldiers.
Enjoy the holiday weekend, and whatever parades, barbecues, and family visits that entails. But do not forget what the holiday is for, and who you are honoring. And when the holiday has passed, continue to honor the brave men and women who sacrificed so much for our country through your daily actions.
