But without a doubt, the day should be foremost in everyone’s mind for honoring the service men and women who have given the ultimate gift of their lives in service to our United States.
The military has been called many, many times since this country was formed to battle oppressive forces in other nations and in other parts of the world, and never have the American men and women failed to turn up in vast numbers to answer our president’s call to the defense or offense in order to make this a better place for all nations.
The war dead number in the hundreds of thousands and it is to these men and women as well as the returning veterans that we owe our freedom, our homeland and our way of life.
War is never a popular thing; unfortunately, it has become a necessity much too often. But this steadfast defense of human rights, fighting against evil forces internationally, shown by our uniformed men and women can never be paid back.
Those who gave their lives fought for all of us. It was not just these men and women and their families who lost. It was all of us, for the extreme loss of lives most likely touched us as well through the loss of friends, family members, classmates, relatives and neighbors.
One only has to look out across the globe to see deadly confrontations and wars roiling. Thankfully, none of these battles are occurring on our lands.
But it could again become possible for the United States to deploy soldiers to the Iraqs, Afghanistans, the Koreas or any other place on this earth to help keep the peace and make life more humane. And again, there will be the deaths of our U.S. troops defending freedom on foreign lands so that all may enjoy freedom.
Memorial Day is the day to remember all of those many thousands of men and women who have given their lives for all the world to be more free.
Hopefully, while the family was having a picnic, going fishing or playing a round of golf, we all gave at least a moment of thought to those who died in service to their and our country.
They deserve our respect, and may we never forget that they all laid down their lives so we could have a Memorial Day full of picnics, fishing, golf and family time.
Congratulations to the three Destination Imagination teams from Meeker. The three teams competed against a total of 1,400 teams from around the world in a competition to solve various problems.
The Meeker teams each competed against a field of 70 to 80 teams in their particular divisions, and all three finished near the middle of the competition.
That little ol’ Meeker sent three teams to the global competition is a great feat.
The team leaders, parents and a lot of people volunteered countless hours of time to work with these young students, and all should be pretty proud of the outcome. To compete on a world scale will indeed prove to be a learning experience and an experience that they will never forget.
Congratulations, members of our Destination Imagination teams. You gave your best and we are all proud of you.
We keep hearing of the flooding on the Front Range, but after visiting around the county over Memorial Day weekend, I can tell you that the water flow in the White River might bear some watching as well.
There are several low-lying places along the White River — up river and down from Meeker — where water is at the absolute rim of the banks and a couple of places where the river barely spreads out above the banks.
No one wants to see a repeat of what happened in Fort Collins on Monday, when a 14-year-old fisherman and his uncle were swept to their deaths in the Cache la Poudre River. The young angler fell into the rapid-moving water and the uncle jumped in after him, trying to rescue him — to no avail. The uncle was pulled from the river while still alive, but he later died at the Fort Collins hospital, and the 14-year-old boy’s body was found eight miles downstream.
Please be aware of rising water this time of year and don’t get too close to the bank.
