Bethesda’s Memorial Day Service

Featured speaker at the Memorial Day Service was local veteran Ashley Carpenter.

She reminded attendees that “we don’t forget their names. We don’t forget their faces or the sound of their voices….that is what Memorial Day is built on. Not politics, not opinions, not division, but sacrifice, and sacrifice is something we should never allow ourselves to grow numb to.”

“They believed something very simple and very powerful, that this country was worth protecting because the people in it were worth protecting,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter pointed out one of the challenges in today’s electronic era is to “build communities where people are not invisible, where veterans are not forgotten after the applause, where families who are struggling are supported before they break, and where young people are led instead of left to figure it out on their own. So, today we remember the fallen, but we also make a decision to live more connected, more present, and to stop passing each other and seeing each other as invisible.”

“The people we honor did not give everything so that we could be less human. They gave everything hoping that we would be more,” said Carpenter.

“So let’s honor them, not just in remembrance, but how we show up for each and every single one of us on this day moving forward”.”