Each year we rightly celebrate Memorial Day. We remember those who served in uniform and died either in armed conflict or from various other causes.

Memorial Day grew out of Decoration Day, first celebrated in 1868 when the Grand Army of the Republic decorated the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. Former Confederate soldiers soon created their own competing practice, and eventually the two were combined into one – Memorial Day.

We often hear it said that others died protecting our freedoms. That is a just cause.

We define our culture through the stories we tell, of our founding fathers and mothers, of our wars, of our best and our worst. Even our movies – think of the typical Western about someone fighting for the underdog – feature the repressed, the hopeless, the powerless.

Read more at The Fort Collins Coloradoan.