It’s the end of a school year; perhaps it is the opening weekend for swimming pools; it’s a three-day break — an excuse to travel, grill out, invite a few friends over and relax.

It is Memorial Day weekend.

And on Monday, in the midst of all that summer celebration, we must remember “to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to (our) individual religious faith, for permanent peace,” as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reminds us. It’s not much to ask from those of us who will be able to enjoy the results of the sacrifice by those who were willing to give everything for this country and what it stood for. It’s not too much of an inconvenience to participate in the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. Monday, to offer a moment of silence for those who have died in service to the nation.

Since December 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Act has reiterated “that the sacrifices of America’s fallen heroes are never forgotten,” according to the VA. How many of us over the past quarter century have stopped to give such a moment to the men and women who died after having sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?”

Too few, no doubt.

Far more than a single moment of reflection has been earned by those who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country — for us.

Enjoy your weekend, folks. But don’t forget why you are free to do so.

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“The freedoms we enjoy, the freedoms we take so much for granted, the freedoms we so often trifle with were bought not by the gold of our millionaires, nor altogether the genius of our scientists, nor the sacrifices of the people at home, but primarily by the blood, sweat and agony of those whose names on this day we honor–those who died that we might live!”

— Evangelist Billy Graham

“What I can do for my country, I am willing to do.”

— American Revolutionary soldier and delegate to the Continental Congress Christopher Gadsden