May 24, 2020 3 min read

Monday is Memorial Day, and it will be a Memorial Day unlike any other we have experienced in our lifetimes.

The parades and solemn ceremonies commemorating the 1 million U.S. service personnel who have died in battle since the nation’s founding will, for the most part, not be happening. The out-of-town excursions, family gatherings and trips to the ballpark that mark the unofficial start of summer have also been shelved thanks to the still-rampant coronavirus.

So, a Memorial Day unlike any other will kind of be a day like every other for many of us.

Sure, it will be a day off for those of us lucky enough to still have jobs. The clock punchers who have been able to make their home their office during the pandemic can keep their laptops closed for a day. With the weather forecast to be good, it could well be that a lot of outdoor projects that have been simmering on the back burner will finally be undertaken, along with some indoor ones, too.

But for Americans who have become suddenly unemployed, are sick, or know someone who is ill with the coronavirus, it will not be a joyous Memorial Day weekend. These are somber and reflective days, even without Memorial Day in the equation.

Nevetheless, we need to keep in mind that all the traditions we associate with Memorial Day will return. With any luck, a vaccine will have been developed by this time next year, or the virus will have lost its punch, and we’ll be able to sit in the stands at a Pittsburgh Pirates game, go to a concert, or go on a picnic without having to fret about masks or social distancing. And the parades, the 21-gun salutes and services that mark Memorial Day will be back. The coronavirus lockdowns are putting a pause on the routines of our lives, not ending them.

And as this Memorial Day weekend comes and goes, we need to look at the men and women who gave their lives for this country to remember that the sacrifices we are making now don’t remotely compare to the sacrifices they made. If you visit Washington Cemetery, you will find a faded tombstone for a soldier who died in the Civil War when he was just 17. Other stones mark the final resting places for young men who died in Europe during World War I when they were not too far beyond 20.

As former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge pointed out in an op-ed in USA Today a couple of weeks ago, “The entire country is under siege, but you are not in the trenches of France, not gaining ground inch by inch in the Pacific, not slogging through the paddies and jungles in Vietnam, and not taking on global terrorists in desert warfare. And you are NOT prisoners of war. You are at home.”

Certainly one honor we could bestow on the service personnel who died for this country is keeping the sacrifices we are making today in perspective.