Even taking into account the many challenges facing our nation, we Americans enjoy liberties, security, peace and prosperity that is the envy of most other people in the world.

Those who guarantee all that to us, the men and women of our armed forces, willingly sacrifice liberties, security, peace and prosperity for themselves.

Sometimes they give their very lives for us. Today, we honor those who made that ultimate sacrifice.

As Americans have done for generations, we as a nation pause on Memorial Day to reflect on the gift given over and over again to us for more than two centuries by those who died while in service to our country. It is a gift beyond repaying.

Men and women who enlist in our all-volunteer military give up most of the blessings they ensure for us. Their freedom is restricted severely. A separate, often stricter, code of law governs them. Their security lasts only as long as their country does not need them for dangerous work. Many could earn far more in private-sector jobs. And for them, there never really is peace of the kind we take for granted.

Throughout our area this Memorial Day weekend, there have been and will be solemn ceremonies paying tribute to our honored dead. Nearly all will have been organized by veterans who understand service, honor and sacrifice far better than civilians. It is appropriate in a way that our honored dead are saluted by their former comrades in arms.

It is not appropriate for us to take those who served and do so today, living or dead, for granted. We owe them virtually every blessing from which we Americans benefit.

So today, whether you attend a former Memorial Day ceremony or not, pause for a moment to reflect on that. If you can, thank a veteran.