Where have all the poppies gone?

It's Memorial Weekend. Everyone is making plans to go camping, have friends over for BBQ, go to the lake, or just plain relax. It's not evident to me, at least not on the surface, that people really honor what Memorial Weekend is for.

It is to honor those who have fallen in service of this country. Fallen is a nice word for died. As in gave their life.

We've drifted away from the importance of the weekend. Yes getting Monday off makes for a perfect three day weekend. Yet, I wonder if any of those people who are so anxious to get away, stop for one minute to acknowledge those men and women who sacrificed so much.

I am patriotic. I was born into a patriotic family. My Dad was in the Army for 22 years. He fought in World War II and the Korean War. He co-founded a VFW post in El Paso Texas and an American Legion Post here in Colorado.

My first job was selling flags for the VFW. I sold alot of flags that Summer. It was a fund-raiser for the VFW post but it was also about honoring our soldiers and exhibiting national pride. We also sold poppies on Memorial Weekend. Poppies were started to wear as a reminder of the fallen. Proceeds of poppy sales were used to support the families of the dead. When I went to England on a vacation, we visited Westminster Abbey. It coincided with the date they honor their dead. The entire yard of the Abbey was covered in poppies. Each military unit had a section of the yard and had carpeted the lawn with poppies. I was moved to tears that the concept of the poppies was global. That soldiers everywhere fought a common enemy so that we are free.

With progress and time comes so many wonderous things. There is a busyness to the world now that didn't exist before. With all that progress we have taken our freedom for granted. Pearl Harbor made the war personal. The attack on 9-11 was personal -- for a few months. What happened? Did we get lulled into a false sense of security? Did we forget what it took to get here? World War II was painful lesson in global peace. The War Against Terrorism has been long yet there is a sense that someone else will take care of it. Who is that someone? That someone is an American! One of us, not some stranger.

History teaches us not to forget.

Don't forget! There are men and women dying every day in the Middle East to uphold something we take for granted. Honor our fallen and our country. Fly the flag. Wear a poppy.

Say a quiet thank you.

I fly a flag every day. It has a light on it so I keep it flying at night too. Nothing fancy but a reminder of the great country I live in, a structural reminder of the men and women who got us here, and the ones who serve now to keep me save. It's also a reminder of my Dad who loved this country so much.