By Bill Quain
I am writing this column on a Sunday morning. It’s the 52nd time I have faced my computer with a column deadline looming, and the 52nd opportunity I have had to reach my readers with messages that will cause them to pause – just for a few minutes – and reflect.
Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege to share my six-word stories on topics ranging from regulating backpacks on the Ocean City Boardwalk (“Whose back is the pack on”) to the student loan crisis (“Student loan sentence – Twenty to life”). Sometimes my columns come from a childhood memory (“Watson’s – More than a summer job”), and sometimes from a current event (“The tide’s turning – Free speech wins”).
Sometimes, there are significant traditions that command my attention. With Memorial Day approaching, I knew I would dedicate this column to remembering the men and women who sacrificed everything in order to give us the freedom to begin another summer season at the shore.
My first memory of Memorial Day occurred in Veterans Park, here in Ocean City. My grandfather, the gentlest man I ever knew, was a Marine who fought in World War I in France. He never spoke about it. But one Memorial Day, he took me to Veterans Park and showed me the obelisk with the names of the Ocean City heroes who died in that war. Seeing the names carved into that stone monument made those people real to me. In this week’s Memorial Day column, I hope to make them real to you as well.
“Remember to make my sacrifice worthwhile.”
Notice that I put quotation marks around this week’s title. Those words are not coming from me. They are coming from every person who died defending our country and our freedoms. You see, in Veterans Park, all those years ago, I imagined what those soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guard members, and Marines who died would say if they were given the opportunity. I believe they would have just one request: “Remember to make my sacrifice worthwhile.”
Each of them went to war, knowing the price they might pay. Each of them accepted and shouldered that responsibility. We must thank each and every one of them for their ultimate sacrifice, and we must try our best to make that sacrifice worthwhile.
The biggest sacrifice: dying for ideas
When the voices of those service people implore us to make their sacrifice worthwhile, they are talking about things such as a peaceful life. However, they also want us to remember their sacrifice in terms of the ideas they died for — freedom, justice, and liberty. That’s the legacy they bequeathed to us. Those are the ideas we must support if we really want to honor them on Memorial Day.
We are here because they sacrificed.
This Memorial Day, I’d like to challenge all of us to look back at our lives. If you are one of the fortunate Americans to be reading this column at the start of another summer season at the Jersey Shore, then someone gave you an opportunity.
So many of us first came to the Jersey Shore with our families. My paternal great-grandparents had a home in the “Irish section” of Ocean City back in 1904. My maternal grandparents had a small grocery store in Atlantic City in the early 1930s and a boarding house packed with family and friends in Ocean City during World War II. I am grateful to all of those people who made the Ocean City tradition a gift for me and my children. None of this would have happened, for my grandparents or for me, without the freedoms we have in America. We wouldn’t have those freedoms without the sacrifices made by those service people who gave their all.
Honor those who died in action.
How can we honor those who died in action? It’s simple. We can step into the shoes of those who have fallen. We need to walk the next miles for them, in their memory. They were stopped in their tracks, but the direction they were going in was clear to them. Let’s make it clear to ourselves and the next generations. For each of the fallen, one of us needs to step forward. For each hero who died in action, one of us needs to “live in action.”
There is no doubt that there are now clear challenges to the American way of life – both from within and without. Thinking about it and talking about it is not enough. Each of us needs to live the ideals that so many have died to support. You can start today. I can start today.
American exceptionalism: It’s worth living for.
What can we do at the Jersey Shore to honor those who have sacrificed so much? We can start like we always do – with our families. We can start by talking about it. Begin some serious discussions in your family. Raise the awareness of what it means and what it takes to be truly free and independent.
Remember, in six weeks or so, we will swing from Memorial Day to the Fourth of July. What can you and your family do to celebrate and live the American dream of freedom in these next six weeks? Begin by exercising your right to free speech and granting that right to others as well.
OK, now tell us about it!
I’d like to thank Shore Local Newsmagazine for the opportunity to share my “Six Words on a Boardwalk Bench” with you, my readers, over this past year.
Now, as always, I invite you to send me your thoughts and comments to bill@quain.com. Tell me about your Memorial Day to Fourth of July “American Exceptionalism” plans. As I say each week, “I’ll see ya in the papers!”
Bill is a Professor in Stockton University’s Hospitality Management Program. He is the author of 27 books, and a highly-respected speaker. Even though he is almost totally blind, Bill is a long-distance runner and runs the Ocean City Half Marathon each year. He lives in Ocean City with his wife Jeanne, and his Guide Dog Trudy. Visit www.billquain.com or email him at bill@quain.com.
