Memorial Day is the traditional beginning of summer.  Once again it has come and gone.  Summer 2007 is on the way.  We really don't  have any way of knowing what kind of summer it will be.  Perhaps it is best that we do not have a crystal ball.  We might not want to know.  But then some of the "surprises" might be really good ones and positive ones.

Recently about 40 persons from our church went to Washington, DC, to make a tour.  Some of the more prominent sites which they visited were memorials.  The Jefferson Memorial was built to honor our third President, Thomas Jefferson.  The Lincoln Memorial was built to honor Abraham Lincoln, who was President through one of the if not the most difficult times in the history of our nation.  Civil War had torn the country apart.  Lincoln did his best to keep the country together.  His Gettysburg Address is a classic in the history of public speaking.

The FDR Memorial was built to honor our longest serving President.  Roosevelt was President during the Depression and afterward as the nation was drawn into World War II.  He died just a little while before the end of the War.  Whether you agree or disagree with things he did while in office, you can't get around the fact that his Presidency was pivotal in the history of our country.

The World War II Memorial is new and long overdue.  It honors all of those who fought in that terrible conflict which enveloped most of the world at that time in war.  America emerged from World War II as a Super Power and has achieved unsurpassed greatness in the history of nations.

The Holocaust Memorial was built to honor the 6 million dead Jews from the World War II time frame.  There are some individuals today who are trying to get others to believe that the Holocaust never happened.  I find that really hard to fathom.  Yet there always are folk who try to rewrite history to suit their own beliefs and prejudices.  I hear that this memorial is eerie.  It is all enveloping.  You are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted after you have gone through it.

The Korean Conflict Memorial is a riveting piece.  It is terraced, as are the rice fields in Korea.  Statues of soldiers are placed in the rice fields, as if they are walking through the fields.  We don't hear much about this conflict, for it was never officially ended.  A truce was established and the thirty-eighth parallel at Panmunjom as the dividing line between North and South Korea.  The army and marines will be remembered forever for their valiant fighting in this conflict.

The Vietnam Memorial was built to honor the 50,000 plus dead and those who fought in Vietnam in the sixties and seventies.  This was the war which defined my generation.  The memorial itself is a black wall which winds its way across the landscape.  On this wall are inscribed the names of all those who lost their lives in Vietnam.  In what must be at least as huge an irony as the fact that we have become such good trading partners with Germany and Japan, our enemies in World War II, is the fact that we now have opened up huge new vistas of trade and commerce with Vietnam.

Today we have men and women in uniform in many places throughout the world.  We remember them.  Especially do we pray for those in places of great danger, Afghanistan and Iraq.  Already some 3500 lives have been lost.  What will be their memorial