OPINION: What is worth striving for?

Between the many ways we recreate and socialize on Memorial Day in the beauty of our shared home, it is sometimes easy to overlook the ultimate acts of service that reflect this day of remembrance.

Memorial Day should ask more of us than a moment of silence. It should force us to ask a harder question: What does America strive for?

That question has followed this country since the Civil War. More than 690,000 Americans died in a war fought not against a foreign enemy, but against one another. The deadliest conflict in our nation’s history was with ourselves. 

The nation was devastated, grieving, and deeply divided.

Born from that collective grief came Memorial Day. 

The first large Memorial Day commemoration was organized not by politicians, but by newly emancipated Black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina.

Just weeks after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, Black residents of Charleston gathered at a former racetrack that had been turned into a prison camp for Union soldiers. More than 250 Union prisoners had died there and were buried in unmarked graves.

The local Black community decided those soldiers deserved better.

For days, they worked to exhume bodies, create proper graves, and build a fence around the burial ground. Then, on May 1, 1865, more than 10,000 people gathered to honor the dead. There were prayers, songs, speeches, flowers, and a parade led by Black schoolchildren carrying roses.

Think about that for a moment.

People who had only recently gained their own freedom chose to honor soldiers who died fighting for the idea that America could become something better than it was. On that first Memorial Day, Americans worked to refocus on something bigger than their own agenda or deep political resentment. 

That is the spirit at the heart of Memorial Day.

It wasn’t about celebrating the “Warrior Ethos,” violence, or American lethality. On Memorial Day, we remember unfathomable sacrifice while asking ourselves whether we are living up to the ideals those men and women believed were worth dying for.

As Americans, what are we striving for today?

Are we fighting for a country where everyone is treated with dignity — no matter their race or political affiliation? For democracy? For freedom? For compassion? For the idea that Americans can disagree without hating one another?

Or are we becoming a nation so consumed by anger, division, and political purity that we forget what sacrifice was meant to protect in the first place?

Memorial Day should remind us that patriotism is not about blind devotion. It is about service, responsibility, and a commitment to one another.

The nation owes an impossible debt to those who gave their lives in service. As people involved in politics our message must focus not on division, but on gratitude, humility, and shared responsibility.

The best moments in American history have come when people chose unity over resentment and hope over fear. The people who created Memorial Day understood this. In the ashes of war, they gathered not to reopen wounds, but to mourn together and recommit themselves to the unfinished work of building a more perfect union.

That work still belongs to us.

So yes, enjoy the barbecue. Go to the lake. Spend time with family and friends. Celebrate the freedoms generations of Americans fought to preserve.

But somewhere between the celebration and the long weekend, take a moment to ask the question Memorial Day leaves behind: What are we striving for now? And are we building a country worthy of the people who died believing in it?

• • •

Sarah Martin is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.