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This coming Monday is Memorial Day and for many it marks the beginning of summer, which comes complete with cookouts, parties and fun.

While we tend to agree that the weekend will have a celebratory tone, it’s important to continue to understand that come Monday, the celebration requires us to change gears to reverence and remembrance for those men and women who gave their lives for this country.

There is plenty of room during the weekend for both activities, however, it must be sincerely recognized that without those lives given in the name of liberty, we may not have the opportunity to celebrate as we know it.

It is not too heavy of a burden for us to draw on these sacrifices  we owe to those who have made our country what it is today.

To that end, we urge you to put the burgers and brats aside for a time on Monday and take part in those local activities dedicated to our fallen soldiers. We owe these brave deceased the time and the effort to come to these ceremonies and properly honor the fallen for everything they have given and done for us — both in life and death.

We recognize their acts, but we also need to recognize the acts of those comrades that stand at each ceremony, each grave site and each memorial. They are living embodiment of those that have come before.

Monday, May 30 — Memorial Day — is a day of remembrance and a day of saluting those who took up arms for the rest of us.

Please take the time to be a part of this country’s storied tradition of holding these memories and deeds sacred.

It is a stark reminder of where we come from in our country’s history.