Remember This

Posted by Philip Barron at 11:43 AM on May 25, 2007.

Philip Barron: A message to the dead on Memorial Day.

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Pfc. LaVena Johnson

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What do you say to the war dead on Memorial Day?

Private First Class LaVena Johnson

You tell them, perhaps, that you are sorry you never got the chance to know them. Who they were, what they loved and feared, what they hoped for. That opportunity is gone, replaced by mute stone and silent earth.

You tell them that you honor the choice they made in serving, even though that sacrifice goes unhonored by an army unwilling to answer families who want only to know how their loved ones died so far from home.

Private First Class LaVena Johnson

You vow to keep the unfulfilled promise of the dead in your heart. What they would have valued. What they might have accomplished. Who they would have been, if only.

On Memorial Day, you tell the war dead - you swear to them - that you will not forget.

Tagged as: iraq, lavena johnson

Philip Barron is a St. Louis writer and author of the blog Waveflux.

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