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I certainly hope that you were able to take a little time out of your hectic holiday weekend schedule to pay your respects to those who have died, and especially those who died while serving in the military. To most of us, Memorial Day weekend becomes a great chance to relax with family, head off to the lake or try to put a serious dent in that list of projects that need to be done around the house. Those endeavors are very noble and probably very much needed by most, but as life goes on, I fear that we will lose sight of why the Memorial Day (Decoration Day) holiday was set aside in the first place.

Throughout our history, there have been times when what the military is doing, or has recently done, does not always lend itself to making the military the most popular vocation in America. But, without our military throughout the glorious history of our country, chances are not very good that we would be able to enjoy all of the freedoms we are now afforded. For all those who have served or are now serving in the military, we owe you and your families a huge debt of gratitude, and to those families who have paid the ultimate price by having a loved one give up their life while on duty, there is no thank you that is fitting for that sacrifice.

We can only hope and pray that we are never in a position to commit as many soldiers as we did in WWII. I’m not positive that there would be those lines of people waiting to sign up like our parents’ and grandparents’ generation did. The events of 9-11 have seemed to rekindle some of that patriotism and even in spite of the protests against the war in Iraq, the general feeling was that we needed to support the men and women who were called to serve.

Never has it been more obvious than in the past couple of years that we are truly living in a global society and the size of the planet seems to shrink with each new technological advancement. I am also constantly reminded that people generally don’t want to see things that don’t have a very direct effect on them. I don’t know about you, but I would like to see us all grow our personal worlds a little larger, at least so that we are aware of what’s going on around us, not just in our yard, but in the neighbor’s as well. If you didn’t make it out to the cemetery over the holiday weekend, do it soon. Take your youngsters and explain to them why there are so many American flags flying on the graves.

On a related subject, June 14 is Flag Day. It is the one day when every American should fly the Stars and Stripes. We should try to fly it every day, but at least get it flying on June 14.

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If you close your eyes and hit your channel changer and land on a station doing news, you would be hard pressed to tell if you were listening to a local station or a national report last week on both the State Legislature and the U.S. Legislature agreed on some legislation that involves tax reductions/rebates and tax freezes. In both cases, the party not proposing the legislation grabbed every sound bite available to let us know in no uncertain terms that we are definitely going to hell in a hand-basket because of this legislation.

Since the beginning of time, I’m sure the political types have dramatically found fault with the opposition’s point-of-view and all it has worked pretty well–-well, it has worked sort of OK. What bothers me now is the apparent arrogance of so many of the elected officials and their indignation with anyone who dares question their positions or take another. The last time I looked, those folks are elected to represent the people of their area. I think that we need to revert to the true representation type of elected. You know the kind that folks can call and voice their opinions, have a discussion, maybe even an argument, and go away from all of that knowing where the elected person stands and why they will vote in favor of your mindset or against it, but giving valid reasons why they will vote against it.

Party politics plays too large a part in the day-to-day operation of government. Case in point, on the tax reduction/rebate proposed in Washington where the vice president had to cast the tie-breaking vote because the Senate was deadlocked 50-50 (there are 50 Republican and 50 Democrat Senators). Rest assured that when the current sessions end that their will be a scramble to take credit for any legislation that appears to be good and an equal effort to blame the opposition for any that appears to be bad.

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The Memorial Day weekend finally delivered on what has made this part of the world so famous––sunshine and beautiful blue skies. Hopefully you made a large dent in that ever-growing list of home projects and still got the opportunity to enjoy some of the beautiful weather.

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Included in this Press is a listing of the Class of 2003 for Chisago Lakes High School and Chisago Lakes Baptist School. Graduation is coming and we salute all graduates, be it high school or college, our hopes for the future rest with you. May Good bless you as you set off on the next phase of your lives. Good luck to you all!

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