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Memorial Day is a holiday that can easily get swallowed by the weekend preceding it.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with firing up the grill with friends or hitting the wilderness for the first camping trip of the season. Long weekends are made for that, especially when the long weekend kicks off summer in Alaska. But Memorial Day deserves a pause.

Alaska knows this better than most places. We are a military state, through and through. We’re home to multiple bases, many Guard members, active-duty families and, by share of population, more veterans than any other state. Memorial Day is not some abstract national holiday here. For many Alaskans, military service is part of your family history and neighborhood life.

Memorial Day is not simply about thanking those who served. That’s important, but this day is specifically for remembering those who did not come home.

So enjoy the weekend — seriously. Get outside. Eat the hot dog. Chase the kids around the yard. Complain about the onslaught of mosquitoes like it is your constitutional duty as an Alaskan.

But somewhere in there today, take a moment and pause. Remember that the freedoms we sometimes treat as ordinary were paid for by people who gave everything.

That’s worth noting on this long Memorial Day weekend.

— Gary Black, opinion editor

Anchorage Daily News
gblack@adn.com

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