READING, Pa. – This Memorial Day marked reflection and remembrance to start summer during a big anniversary year for the U.S.
“Two hundred and fifty years ago, a bold and uncertain experiment began — an idea that would reshape not only a continent but the course of human history,” said Chief Petty Officer Andrew Kropf with the U.S. Navy.
Monday morning in Reading at Veterans Grove in City Park, the Combined Veterans Council of Berks County kicked off the events.
“Memorial Day — a day not of celebration but of remembrance. A day that grounds our national story and the sacrifices of those who gave their life in its defense,” Kropf said.
Despite rainy weather, people gathered to honored fallen heroes.
“Remembrance is not passive,” Kropf said. “It asks something of us; it asks us to pause in a world that moves so quickly and remember individuals — sons and daughters, friends and neighbors — who once lived ordinary lives with dreams and hopes not unlike our own.”
The ceremony emphasized that freedom comes with a heavy price.
“Freedom is not abstract,” Kropf said. “It has been defended time and again by people willing to risk and ultimately give their lives.”
It’s a milestone with a solemn and deeply meaningful reminder.
“Memorial Day reminds us of the cost of preserving our democracy,” Kropf said. “It reminds us that the freedoms we often take for granted were secured through extraordinary sacrifice.”