Many of the readers and our correspondents are military veterans. We’d like to share the following today:

While we recognize that “All gave some, but some gave all,” this is important to remember. Lest we think wrongly about those who gave their lives in service to causes that many of us now see very differently. Even though many of those who were killed in action or died of accidents or disease were there as conscripts, they still served with honor. And therefore deserve honor.

Today, it is safe to say that no war in which the people of what are now the Fifty States have served over the past 484 years, and died, is considered to be a “good war” or even a “just war” as some theologians would put it. But we are wrong to judge them based on our understanding of their times alone.

(Why 584 years and not 250?

(We use the date of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition into the American Southwest (Texas, New Mexico, and nearby States) as the first instance of war that we can actually date. Of course, we know that the AmerInd nations (tribes, if you prefer) warred against each other. So men and women fought and died to defend their families, their possessions, their hunting and farming territories (and no doubt, their water supplies) long before that. But those who fought against Spanish colonization should be the first “American” war dead we remember tomorrow.

For good or bad, people have always been in harm’s way to protect their families, their clans, bands, and tribes, and their nations from those who threatened them. Were they all correct in their belief that their cause was just? No. But their sacrifice should still be honored.

That means recognizing and remembering those who rebelled and sought secession from the crown, the Kingdom of England. And also those who were Loyalists and fought for King and Country. It means thinking of those who raided and sought to drive out those invaders from across the sea, as well as those who aided those “colonizers” and those invaders. And to be honest, we should also accept that those royal troops, whether English (and later British), French, or Spanish, also were fighting and dying for what most of them believed was right.

That is even more important when we look at the Texian secession from Mexico, and then the Mexican War. And when we come to the War Between the States, that is very true. Soldiers from Maine and Wisconsin were as fervent in their belief about their just cause as any greyback trooper from Texas or South Carolina. And despite the condemnation of the Indian Wars of the 19th Century (and those which continued even into the 1920s), the warriors, soldiers, and settlers who gave their lives in those conflicts also should be recognized.

Without going into detail about the wars of the very late 19th Century and the entire 20th Century, and the past quarter-century, we note that many (if not all) of those who fought and died, who were wounded physically or mentally, who sickened and died, believed in the justice of their cause, and that their enemies did pose a real threat to their loved ones, their homes, their institutions, and their liberty.

We are right, and using our hindsight of 20-20 vision, to condemn warmongering, to speak out against the hubris and greed (for land, power, and other wealth) that our ancestors exhibited. And for the false idea that war is to be preferred over peace. And all too often, for the way we treated our defeated enemies. But it is wrong to condemn those who did give some or all when we judge them by the standards of 2026 and not their own time. Condemn their actions? Yes, but leave the rest of the judgment to their Creator.

Memorial Day is not about picnics or car races or time at the beach. It is also not about those family members who passed away from old age or died in work or travel accidents, or from disease. Tragic though deaths of most people are, tomorrow is a day to remember those who, voluntarily or not, wrongly or not, gave their lives to protect something and someone who they valued. It is a day when we should learn from the past, both the good and the bad. And refuse to ignore or forget our history.