In this space I have offered 15 commentaries on Memorial Day (one each year since the Herald began to carry my columns weekly). What is there left upon which to comment on Memorial Day? At least three things.

The more we go through any holiday observance, the greater the tendency to take the holiday for granted and forget its purpose. Each such holiday morphs into something, at best, entirely different or, more common, something that actually compromises or even destroys the purpose for the holiday. It is so concerning other civic observances such as Independence Day, Veterans Day, and Labor Day. It is so concerning religious observances such as Easter, Christmas, and the Jewish high days.

It is at least as much so concerning Memorial Day, and, so, I feel obliged to comment for the 16th consecutive year.

I will not repeat my error of several years ago when I submitted the same piece to the Albert Lea Tribune, Rochester Post Bulletin, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and St. Paul Pioneer Press, as well as the Herald. I had hoped a couple would carry it. Much to my consternation, all five carried the same piece on the same day. Editors were mad, especially those of the two largest papers.

The second reason to keep writing annually is that when a soldier, or any member of the armed forces, gives his or her life for our country, it is a one-time, once-for-all sacrifice. President Abraham Lincoln, on the Gettysburg battlefield, laid it down that”these shall not have died in vain.” Nor shall they be forgotten. Because they cannot die for us yet again, it is at once our opportunity and obligation to keep remembering them. If not every day of the year, at least this day every year.

Remembering the war dead every day of the year would be appropriate. There are those who remember every day, because every day a spouse, child, sibling, parent, or friend is missing from where they would have been and should be. Their very absence is a painful memorial. These who so suffer also suffer for us. We should remember them too. Moreover, there are any number of non-ceremonial and practical things we can do for them—like just remembering their sacrifice and thanking them for it.

Not finally, because our obligation will never be completed, but thirdly: Men and women are still dying and being killed in defense of our nation and in rescue of others according to our global obligation. Tragically, the roster of honorable and honored war dead lengthens as every Memorial Day arrives.

With its arrival, there arrives our opportunity to reach out to the greatest number of those immediately bereft by war deaths. Few immediate survivors of World War I remain to comfort, and those from World War II are now themselves dying in great numbers.

But families of those killed in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan are within reach. In reaching out to them, it should be both helping hands and embracing arms.

I write again today to remind you to remember. Remember not merely historically but humanly. This commentary is my memorial.

What is yours?