The weather is going to be great, but you may want to think twice before cracking open a beer and having a pool party this weekend.
Monday is Memorial Day, and we encourage everybody to take the time to honor the people who died for our country, not the least among them Lance Cpl. Philip Paul Clark, an Alachua County native and 2008 Buchholz High School graduate who died on May 18 while serving in Afghanistan.
Clark's body is going to be escorted into town today by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, and his funeral service will be held at Queen of Peace Catholic Community on Friday at 9:30 a.m.
While Clark's sacrifice is especially meaningful, millions of Americans have died fighting for their country since they day it was founded. It might be a good time to remember that by visiting memorial displays at Kanapaha Park on Tower Road or the Veterans for Peace's tombstones on Northwest Eighth Avenue and 34th Street. It might not go down as your happiest Sunday afternoon, but our fallen soldiers deserve to be remembered.
This is not the time to talk about whether we should be in the two wars we are fighting. It is not the time to curse politicians, and it certainly is not the time to protest. There are another 364 days in the year for that. It is the time to think about Philip Paul Clark and the other soldiers who gave up their lives so we could live ours.
Come Monday we should all take a break from our opinions and remember that people have died fighting for us not because they had to but because they chose to.
