Remembering Our Defenders of Freedom, And of Progress

This Memorial Day, DefensePolicy.org relaunches with renewed enthusiasm for building this prime web property and its associated social media properties into a hub of news and opinion for and about America’s defense and national security community. So it is fitting that our first post-relaunch post should be a tribute to those who have served America’s defense and national security community, including and especially those who have given their lives in service to our country.

The United States of America is built on a foundation of ideals. From the flight from religious persecution in Europe, to rebellion against royal tyranny, to the proclamation of those immortal self-evident truths, to our engagement in bloody civil war to live up to those truths, to the technological innovation that led the world out of darkness, to our twice costly stance against tyrannical global aggressors, to our drive to reach for the moon, to our more recent leadership in technological revolution and fight against global terror, America believes in and fights for its ideals.

However, just as we all know that freedom isn’t free, neither is progress. We owe those who have put their livelihoods on on hold and their lives on the line - and at times even honorably yet prematurely  sacrificed those lives and livelihoods - an immeasurable debt of gratitude for our ability to say what we want, to go where we want, to live where we want, to love whom we want, and to write what we want, just as I am freely doing here and now.

But we also owe them our gratitude for the progress we have made against tyranny, oppression, enslavement, and prejudice; against the elements, darkness, and disorder; and against ignorance, fear, and isolation. None of the progress of humanity would have come without the selfless sacrifices of those who have defended our gains as a society along more than just the spectrum of freedom.

So on this Memorial Day, we owe those who have served not only our appreciation for our liberty, but also for our modernity. We at DefensePolicy.org are sincerely and forever grateful, and we remember.