For many people, this will be a long weekend with Monday off to celebrate Memorial Day. There will be family gatherings, there will be trips to be the beach or to the river and Monday night Flomaton Speedway will put on a fireworks show.
We just hope people will pause this weekend to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day; celebrate is probably not the correct word, because what we are actually doing is paying tribute to the many men and women who have died fighting to give us the freedom to go to the beach, have cookouts with our families or watch firework shows. We are paying tribute to the many men and women who fought and died to give us the right to write this column with a free press that out founding fathers felt was so important to our Democratic form of government.
Every year there is a Memorial Day event held on the front lawn of the Escambia County Courthouse to honor the many men and women from this county who died to protect our freedoms. This list includes those who died in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Korea and the war on terrorism.
We all take too many of our freedoms for granted. Most people seem to think we have some type of entitlement to do what we want to do. The freedoms we enjoy today were given to us by our military. It started with the American Revolution that led to the forming of the United States of America, free from British rule.
We've attended the Memorial Day event in Brewton for many years and it still has an impact when we listen as they read off the names of county residents who died fighting for this country. If you've never been, it's a humbling experience.
Whether you show up at the courthouse Monday or not, we just hope you will at least pause and pay respect to the people who gave you the right to enjoy a long holiday weekend.
