Religious freedom and political liberty are the birthrights that each and every one of us gets to experience every day of the year. I wonder if we can even imagine living our lives in a time and place where the slightest disagreement about a teaching of the state religion resulted in torture and death, or a time and place where we were born and lived essentially in bond to a King. Blessedly we do not have to live as our ancestors did.

On this day we must remember the terrible sacrifice made by the men and women of our armed services who have fought and died to grant us and defend our freedoms. The people whom, with their own blood protected the nation that became a beacon of liberty for people the world over.

Perhaps most especially this day we must remember those people who died for us, on foreign battlefields over the past year. Far from home, they have given everything for their nation.