Idaho Mountain Express: To honor is our duty

Friday, May 25, 2012

To honor is our duty

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl won't be going to a barbecue on Memorial Day.

He'll still be a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan while his parents in Hailey continue to hope for his release and to pressure the American government to do everything it can to secure his release.

Hailey's Main Street is lined with yellow ribbons. Sun Valley-area businesses and homes exhibit them, too, as expressions of support for the Bergdahls and the hope that the soldier will be home soon.

His captivity and uncertain status are reminders of the worry and anxiety other parents experienced when their sons and daughters fought the wars that threatened the very fiber of America. His plight makes personal the perils that our soldiers face. It makes Monday's Memorial Day ceremonies particularly poignant.

Not every military combatant makes it home. Even those who do return sometimes bring with them deep injuries that they carry the rest of their lives.

Those who served and perished gave us a gift that we cannot ever repay. There's not enough gold in the world to buy the freedoms they bought with blood, the freedoms that were lost to themselves.

We can only acknowledge and honor their gift by putting aside the pleasure of a long holiday weekend for an hour and joining others to contemplate and remember them with speeches, salutes, music and a flyover of an A-10 Thunderbolt with the Idaho Air National Guard.

Monday's ceremonies will be held at the Ketchum Cemetery and Hailey Cemetery at 11 a.m. Attending is the duty of each and every American and should be our pleasure as well.

buy viagra
acheter viagra
comprar viagra

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: