It’s been a while. The world is drastically different than the last time I wrote. Back in those good old days, saying that our government will literally kill us all was a hyperbole. Today we are nearing 100,000 American souls gone as a result of a government unwilling and incapable of protecting us, that is 40,000 more people than we lost in the Vietnam war. Today is also Memorial Day. As numerous memes will remind us, it is not a National BBQ day but rather a day to remember American heroes we lost in the wars we fought. And it truly is. Today is the day to remember and honor brave men and women who fought and died in wars our country sent them to fight. While we can debate the wisdom and righteousness of those wars, we cannot debate the bravery and valor of the ones who were willing to risk their lives for their country and countrymen. But today we are in the middle of a pandemic the likes of which not seen in the last few generations. We are all fighting a war against an enemy we can neither see, negotiate with, or effectively eliminate at this time. But instead of relying on .5% of the population, the portion of US population serving in the military, to fight this war, we are ALL tasked with fighting it. We did not choose to fight, but fight we must. And while the previous wars have, by and large, united the country in our support for the troops, if not for the wars, we as a country can’t seem to muster that unity now. While paying lip service to people who made the ultimate sacrifice in previous wars, people cannot muster enough selflessness and bravery to wear a goddamn mask. People who insist on wearing a mask and continue to insist that rules requiring to wear a mask are necessary and should be enforced are labeled as cowards and fearmongers. We, as a country, are willing to accept the sacrifice of thousands of men in women in uniform, but are unable to make this tiniest of sacrifices to fight for our fellow Americans. Americans that are 100,000 less today. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely hate masks. I hate that they have come to represent the vicious attack we are under, I hate that I cannot see beautiful faces of my friends and neighbors, the general feeling of faces around me being erased, I hate that I have trouble breathing wearing one, I find them a grim and depressing reminder of how much of our lives has been taken away from us. But as I imagine all the brave soldiers that have gone into battle under our flag, I have to imagine how much they hated the war, or being away from their families and loved ones, and how much they hated the idea of potentially never seeing those families and loved ones again. But they went, and they fought, and they died. And in every instance they did so because they believed that they were protecting their fellow Americans, and our way of life. So, I am so very baffled why people are willing to sacrifice the American sons and daughters to protect us but are unwilling to do so with a small but necessary act of wearing a mask. This experience has really made me wonder whether our patriotism and support of our troops is really just a euphemism for our obsession with war and has nothing to do with the appreciation of those that gave their lives. Do we really care? It’s hard to believe that we do when we are so unwilling to make the smallest of sacrifices. And we can blame it on leadership, the media, social networks, but at the end of the day, it is about each individual person, each individual family, each individual community, standing up and saying the only way to honor those that fought and died for us is to do our part to protect our fellow Americans. It is to do the thing that we might find hard and we might hate but which is necessary at this time. It is to remember that the bravest are not the ones who yell the loudest but the ones that are willing to sacrifice for others.