Honoring the dead

OPINION

by Bill Holden

As a Vietnam veteran, Memorial Day is a sacred day to remember and honor those who lost their lives in service to this nation.

This year due to the health restrictions many of the memorial services have been canceled. Requiring those of us who serviced to remember our lost buddies battle in a more private way.

For me and my wife Debi, we took a slow drive around the national cemetery at Fort Logan to view the thousands of white marbled headstones of those who served the nation with honor. Each solitary headstone that had an American flag acknowledged this individual gave his or her life in battle.

The Garden of Stones reflected thousands of military soldiers, sailors and airmen who bravely fought for the nation that they loved.

I took a moment to reflect on the over 100,000 of Americans who have died in the last two months from the COVD-19 virus and the personal grief that all those families must be suffering on this Memorial Day.

The divisiveness and politicization that has emerged over this great loss of these family members can only add to pain that these families are suffering through.

Americans are a compassionate people that at times of crisis have historically rallied together when faced threat to our very democracy as the graves of those buried at Fort Logan graphically demonstrate. Why can’t we do the same to defeat this insidious coronavirus and not turn this crisis into a political blame game.

In spite of political differences on many other issues, democrats and republicans should be able to focus on attacking this virus together, which will then allow all of us to begin working on the restoration of this country’s efforts to rebuild our economy.

As an example, last Friday Republican El Paso County Commission Stan VanderWerf and I volunteered to fly over 500 pounds of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Centennial Airport to Grand Junction for distribution to two local hospitals. This is a great example of democrat and republican commissioners working together during this health crisis. While the two of us may disagree on some political issues, we can work together to ensure that medical personnel is able to protect themselves in treating COVID 19 patients.

We all must approach this crisis by honoring these victims who have died during this medical crisis by working to stop the spread on this virus by wearing protective masks, respecting social distancing and making every effort to avoid large crowds to limit the potential of coming in contact with the virus.

Let’s all work together to stem the spread of this virus. We are the only anecdote to stopping this virus that is currently available.