I wrote an extensive article about Memorial Day in 2007 that you can read by clicking here.

As I write this article, our troops are fighting and dying in Afghanistan in the longest war in our nation’s history.

They are scheduled to cease combat operations in 2014.

I myself am a veteran of the United States Air Force; many of my family have served in many different wars.

There is no greater sacrifice than a person giving their life in the service of the country that they love.

As you look at the beautiful day today, enjoy your family, your freedom, and your food, try to remember those brave souls who can no longer enjoy the things in life that you take for granted.

Maybe can look up at the sky and say a prayer for them, and thank them for giving it their all so you can live in this land of the free.

It is all Americans duty to defend freedom.

I recently had a debate on Facebook with an ultra-right wing religious zealot based here in the United States of America. He attempted to couch his advocacy of turning our nation into a nation based only on his religious views, into a Constitutional argument.

This zealot and his kind seek to take away our individual rights and liberties by pushing their religious agenda on all of us, kind of like the same way the Taliban force their views on the people of Afghanistan, kind of like how the Iranians push their Muslim views on their society, kind of like all nations based on a certain religion have repressed their citizens for thousands of years.

Our founding fathers were smart guys, they purposefully kept a separation of religion and state so that all people would be free to do their own thing in this nation.

This Memorial Day remember the men and women who have fought and died for a nation where all people are able to practice their individual religious views however they want.

Right now there are subversives amongst us who seek to pervert our constitution by taking away our individual freedoms in many States as I speak, as well as at the national level.

In order to do our veterans justice we must all take a deep breath and vote, protest, and do everything legally necessary to ensure that our domestic enemies are stopped, just like our fallen military heroes stopped our foreign enemies.

Anytime you see someone advocate for taking away our liberty and freedom you are seeing an enemy of the USA, even if they are waving an American Flag.

We owe it to our fallen heroes. Vote well this upcoming election. Do not vote for a party that would subvert our individual freedoms and liberties.

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.