WEBVTT
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We like the heroic movie version of life right. We
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like the slow motion flagshot waving, the swelling music. But
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Memorial Day asks us to do something way harder, and
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it asked us to mourn. It asks us to look
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at that cost. It asked us to admit that our
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freedoms were preserved by people who lost everything. That kind
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of remembrance should humble us, not puff us up, not
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make us arrogant, not make us worship the state, but
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humble us, because there's a big difference between patriotism and idolatry.
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Broadcast they self in the minds of the.
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What if I told you Memorial Day was not created
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for hot dogs, mattress sales, and three day weekends. What
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if I told you began with flowers on braves, with widows,
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with mothers, with children standing beside headstones that had names
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carved into them, but no fathers were coming home. What
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if I told you that one of the most dangerous
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things a nation can do is forget, forget the people
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who died so that nation could keep breathing. Because Memorial
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Day is not just a holiday, It is at a
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test of memory, a test of gratitude, a test of
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whether America still understands that liberty is not free, peace
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is not guaranteed, and freedom does not survive in a
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culture that cannot remember what it costs. Today, on Broadcasting Seeds,
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we are digging into Memorial Day, Decoration Day, in the
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Civil War, roots of American remembrance, the sacred power of
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honoring the dead, and the uncomfortable question we need to
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ask ourselves as Americans today. Have we become a nation
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that enjoys the benefits of sacrifice while forgetting the people
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who made it. Welcome back to Broadcasting Seeds. I'm Benettantin,
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and today this episode is a little different. This is
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not going to be a political rant. It is not
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going to be a shallow patriotic speech, and it is
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definitely not going to be one of those let's all
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remember the troops moments. That sounds nice for five seconds,
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but then it just disappears the second the grille gets
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fired up. No, today we are talking about Memorial Day,
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not Veterans' Day, not Armedforces Day. Memorial Day, the day
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set aside to honor those who died in service to
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this country, the ones who did not get to come home,
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the ones whose families got a folded flag instead of
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an actual reunion with their loved ones, the ones whose
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stories ended so that our stories, other stories could continue.
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And I think we need to talk about this because
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America frankly has a memory problem. We remember trends, we
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remember scandals, we remember sports stats, right, we remember celebrity drama,
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we remember the algorithm. But do we remember the dead?
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Do we remember the people buried in national cemeteries, small
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town graveyards and foreign soil and forgotten family plots? Do
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we remember the Civil War soldiers who gave birth to
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this day of remembrance? Do we remember marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardians,
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the coast guardmen who died in wars that most Americans
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now only know through movies and freaking memes and half
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remembered history classes. That is what we are digging into today,
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because remembrance is not nostalgia. Remembrance is spiritual discipline, and
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forgetting is not harmless, folks, It's not harmless. Memorial Day
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was born from grief. It actually began as Decoration Day.
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That name matters, So Decoration Day was not about decorating
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homes and cars or storefronts. It was about decorating graves.
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Flowers were laid on the resting places of soldiers who
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died in the Civil War. That war tore the country
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apart and left more than six people's These numbers six
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hundred and twenty thousand dead. Think about that number for
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one second. That is not just the statistic. That was fathers, sons, brothers, husbands,
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neighbors and friends. General John A. Logan, leader of the
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Grand Army of the Republic, issued a call in eighteen
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sixty eight for Americans to decorate the graves of Union soldiers,
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the first major national observice. That happened in May thirtieth,
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eighteen sixty eight. That is the historical route, but the
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emotional root is way deeper. I mean, America was straight
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up bleeding. I talked about this in an episode I
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did on Gettysburg. Not that long ago. Go check it out.
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But America was bleeding. I mean, families were shattered because
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brothers fought on opposite sides of this fight. In many instances,
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communities were split. The country had survived, but survival came
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with a graveyard attached to it. So the people went
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to the cemeteries and they brought flowers, and they spoke names,
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they remembered. There's something powerful about that because in scripture,
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memory is not passive, it's active. The people of Israel,
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we're constantly told to remember, Remember the Lord, Remember the Covenant,
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Remember the deliverance from Egypt. Remember what happened when you forgot.
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In other words, memory is not just about the past.
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Memory actually shapes the future. When a nation forgets rightly,
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it starts living wrongly. And then so Waterloo, New York,
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and the battle over memory. And here is where this
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gets interesting for us in New York. Waterloo, New York,
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is officially recognized as one of the birthplaces of Memorial Day,
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and in nineteen sixty six, New York State recognized Waterloo
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by proclamation, and Congress followed with recognition that same year.
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Now there are other communities that claim earlier observances. That
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is part of the story. Memorial Day did not fall
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out of the sky fully formed, Okay, It rose up
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from local acts of grief and remembrance across the country.
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Different towns honored their dead, different families decorated graves, different
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communities created rituals. And honestly, that makes the story more
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powerful because Memorial Day was not invented by a marketing
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team or an agency. It was not built by a
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brand strategist. Right, It was not cooked up by a
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government office trying to create a three day weekend. It
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came from the people. It came from grief. It came
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from widows and veterans and families who understood that if
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the dead were not remembered, the living would become careless.
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That is the real warning. A nation does not usually
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forget all at once. It forgets slowly, one sale at
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a time, one party at a time. It's sadly, one
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generation at a time, until the sacred becomes ordinary, until
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sacrifice becomes just absolute background noise, until Memorial Day becomes
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the unofficial start of summer. Right, and listen, I'm not
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against barbecues. Look do I look do people that look
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like this? They're not against grilled meat, folks. I am
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a big fan of grilled meat. I am not trying
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to outlaw hamburgers here. Let's not get freaking crazy. But
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if the barbecue replaces the grave, frankly, we have a problem.
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The difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. This is
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where a lot of people get confused. Then people will
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look at me and be like, thank you for your
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service and absolutely my pleasure. But Veterans Day honors all
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those who served another one, all forces. Armed Forces Day
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honors those currently serving. Memorial Day today honors those who
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died in service, and that difference matters. Memorial Day is
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not primarily about thinking living veterans, although you should thank
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veterans every day. Most veterans will tell you that it
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is about remembering the fall one that empty chair and
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the folded flag, or the name on the wall, the
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stone in the cemetery, the family that kept living after
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someone they loved did not come home. And this is
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important because we live in a culture that likes inspiration,
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but they avoid grief at all costs. We like the
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heroic movie version of life right. We like the slow
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motion flag shot waving, the swelling music. But Memorial Day
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asks us to do something way harder. And it asked
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us to mourn. It asked us to look at that car.
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It asks us to admit that our freedoms were preserved
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by people who lost everything. That kind of remembrance should
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humble us, not puff us up, not make us arrogant,
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not make us worship the state, but humble us because
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there's a big difference between patriotism and idolatry. Folks. Patriotism
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says I love my country and I honor those who
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sacrificed for it. That's patriotism. Idolatry says my country can
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do it, can do no wrong. Memorial Day should not
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make us blind, it should make us sober. I believe
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there's a spiritual war against remembrance. Here's the broadcasting seeds
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a part. Okay, there is a spiritual war war against memory.
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I really believe that, because people who remember are harder
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to manipulate. People who remember the cost of freedom are
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really hard to enslave. Because people who remember sacrifice are
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harder to turn into shallow consumers, people who remember they're
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dead are harder to detach from their inheritance. That is
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why every totalitarian system attacks memory. It rewrites history, It
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destroys and tears down monuments. It changes the language, it
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changes it mocks tradition, and it severs people from their
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fathers and mothers. It teaches every generation to despise the
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one before it, and eventually people no longer know who
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they are. This is not an accident. A memoryless people
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are absolutely simple so easy to control. So this is
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one of the reasons Memorial Day matters. Not because America
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is perfect, because we're not, and because people humans are
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not perfect. America is not perfect. Not because every war
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was wise, because it wasn't. It's not. They still aren't.
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Every war was not wise. Not because every leader is
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righteous or was righteous, because they are not. But because
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the people who died are not abstractions. These are not
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policy positions, They are not hashtags. Man, They're human beings.
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They were human beings and many of them believed they
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were standing between their home and something worse. And I'm
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sorry that deserves reverence. It freaking deserves at least a
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moment of silence. It deserves memory, the national moment of remembrance.
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So every day, at three pm local time, whatever time
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that is, Americans are encouraged to pause for a national
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moment of remembrance just one minute, folks, sixty freaking seconds.
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And that sounds small, but in a distracted age, silence
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is rebellion an a noisy age, remembrance frankly is warfare
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and a cultural In a culture addicted to movement, stopping
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becomes sacred. So here's my challenge to you on Memorial Day.
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Enjoy your family, eat the food, laugh with your people,
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be freaking grateful. But at three pm stop, put your
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phone down, turn the music off, Tell your kids what
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the day actually means. Say a prayer. If you were inclined,
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speak the names of those that you may know, If
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you know anyone that you may know, and if you
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do not know any names, then remember the unknowns, the
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ones buried far from home, the ones lost at sea,
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the ones whose bodies were never ever recovered, and the
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ones whose families never got answers, the ones whose stories
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ended in mud, sand, jungle, snow, ocean, fire, and and steal.
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I beg you give them one minute, because they gave everything.
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They gave you everything. So do not on this Memorial Day.
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Do not let the machine steal the meaning. Do not
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let the sales, the noise, the algorithms, the politics, or
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the distractions turn a sacred day into just another long weekend.
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Memorial Day began with graves with flowers, with names, with
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a nation trying to remember what war had taken from it.
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And maybe that is exactly what we need again. Not
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performative patriotism, folks, not empty slogans. Not shallow outrage, but
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actual remembrance. Real remembrance, the kind that actually humbles you.
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I know that's hard for some people. The kind that
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makes you freaking grateful attitude, the kind that makes you ask,
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am I living in a way that honors what was
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actually handed to me? Because that's inherited? Because freedom is inherited,
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but it is not automatic. Liberty can pass down, but
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it can also absolutely be squandered. The first step towards
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losing it is forgetting what it actually cost. Remember that
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we all have skin in the game. This has been
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broadcasting seeds. If this episode made you think, share it
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with someone who needs to hear it before a Memorial
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Day becomes just another sale, another cookout, or another day off.
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And this Memorial Day today at three pm, I need
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you to pause, remember the fallen. Some of these guys
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are my friends, some of them are my family. Say
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your prayer, and then I challenge you to live like
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the sacrifice actually meant something. Have a good day.
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There's a flag sat in there.
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And a feud outside of town where the morning comes up, cry.
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And the whole world settles down.
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There's a mother with her hair on a stone. She
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knows you well nor she never got to say louder
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than the belt, And we.
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Keep move it faster like the past is justa goes.
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Some names were carved in marble, so we never let
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them go.
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So before the flower your side, before the region, it's
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as before the smoke and summer songs wash away.
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The reason we are here, say their names loud, Let
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the silence haveage lice.
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We are stadding in.
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The freedom they never got to change.
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Before the flower.
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Faith there's a folded piece of heaven in a box
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upon the shelf, and a picture in the hallway of
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a kid who looked like her, but he smiled. He
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was fearless, wrote home when he could.
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Said doorry, mom, I'm.
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Doing fine, like every soldiering. Now the years.
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Keep turning pages and the headlines coming go with some
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story sending sacrifice.
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So somebody else got up. So before the fine, before
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the way, Jane disappears, before the smoke, just summer songs.
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Why the way, the reason we are here, say their
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names loud, Let the silence salvage flies.
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We are standing in.