Happy Memorial Day…from the beach!

While CV heads to the beach for the holiday weekend, we wish everyone a sense of peace and happiness.

Please take time this long weekend to think about our troops currently in harm’s way and the millions of military men and women who have placed their lives on the line to allow us to enjoy freedoms that no other country in the world enjoys.

Think of the soldiers lost on the battle fields of history that provided those of us in the United States with the ability to freely voice our feelings both literally and through the democratic process. Consider that our men and women that have worn the uniform helped establish a free country where leadership changes without the firing of a gun or the need to overthrow dictators.

Thanks to the soldiers of the past and present, terrorists don’t run our country, religious fanatics aren’t in control of our way of life, and we don’t live under the threat of daily bombings and suicide assassins. We don’t walk in our backyards fearing that there might be an IED buried somewhere. We don’t fear the discovery of tens of thousands of shallow graves where people who had a difference of opinion were exterminated and buried.

Despite the protestations of some, these are some of the gifts that our soldiers, past and present, have given each of us. Please…take time to celebrate these gifts. Take time, in the midst of cookouts and badminton, horseshoes and NASCAR, to honor those men and women who ask for so very little while giving so very much.

Stephen Winslow is the executive editor of Conservative Viewpoints.