#Memorialday
I know most of you are out on a beach, backyard or in a park right now prepping for the cookouts that will signify the unofficial start of the summer but so often we lose sight of why exactly we aren’t punching the clock today.  While most Americans don’t know or don’t care why we celebrate Memorial Day and are content to just have a free day off, the truth is the last Monday of May each year  is dedicated to those service men and women who died in defense of our country.  While the holiday, formerly known as Decoration Day, was first enacted to commemorate Union soldiers of the Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to honor Americans from all wars…ALL WARS.

I’ve got love for the men and women in the armed forces who put their lives on the line every day in military service, including my good friend Evorgleb and the growing population of servicemen in the Highbrid Nation.  However, today I wanted to take this Memorial Day to remember all those to died for our freedoms that NEVER wore a military uniform.

So this year, I want to salute the nameless millions that navigated through the horrors of 300 years of slavery, fought for women’s suffrage endured the brutal beatings during the civil rights era….and died so that we, the Nation…could be here…AND SPEAK.  So this one’s for Crispus Attucks, the first casualty of the American Revolution, the real life Kunte Kinte’s out there, Emmett Till, Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley who died in the 1963 Birmingham Church bombing while attending Sunday School.  This is for Ella Baker, Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer who fought hard for woman’s rights.  This day’s for the victims of the “Tuskegee Syphillis study, the Buffalo Soldiers, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver and the martyrs of the Black Panther Party,  This is for Harriett Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Dr. Dorothy Height, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and the countless, countless heroes who like the military have died in defense of our freedoms.  On this Memorial Day lets remember their sacrifice.