I began crying on the way over and what I took from today's service was intense gratitude to our military but also a need to honor this day more.  Memorial Day used to be a solemn day of mourning, a sacred day of remembrance to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. Businesses closed for the day. Towns held parades honoring the fallen, the parade routes often times ending at a local cemetery, where Memorial Day speeches were given and prayers offered up. People took the time that day to clean and decorate with flowers and flags the graves of those the fell in service to their country.

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic." -- General Logan - May 5, 1868 (from the first Memorial Day)

I learned so much about the sacrifices through song, testimonies and the faces of the veterans proudly present in the crowd and I was deeply affected by the POW/MIA Place Setting Remembrance Service (please watch this video to know more).

We need to remember, with sincere respect, those who paid the price for our freedoms; we need to keep, in sacred remembrance, those who died serving their country. We need to never let them be forgotten.

In South Lake Tahoe we remembered.  The true meaning of today was felt by everyone present.  It is with a grateful heart that I extend my sincere thank you to all who have given so much and are continuing to give.