READING, Pa. \u2013 This Memorial Day marked reflection and remembrance to start summer during a big anniversary year for the U.S.<\/p>\n
“Two hundred and fifty years ago, a bold and uncertain experiment began \u2014 an idea that would reshape not only a continent but the course of human history,\u201d said Chief Petty Officer Andrew Kropf with the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n
Monday morning in Reading at Veterans Grove in City Park, the Combined Veterans Council of Berks County kicked off the events.<\/p>\n
“Memorial Day \u2014 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,\u201d Kropf said.<\/p>\n
Despite rainy weather, people gathered to honored fallen heroes.<\/p>\n
“Remembrance is not passive,\u201d Kropf said. \u201cIt asks something of us; it asks us to pause in a world that moves so quickly and remember individuals \u2014 sons and daughters, friends and neighbors \u2014 who once lived ordinary lives with dreams and hopes not unlike our own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ceremony emphasized that freedom comes with a heavy price.<\/p>\n
“Freedom is not abstract,\u201d Kropf said. \u201cIt has been defended time and again by people willing to risk and ultimately give their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a milestone with a solemn and deeply meaningful reminder.<\/p>\n
“Memorial Day reminds us of the cost of preserving our democracy,\u201d Kropf said. \u201cIt reminds us that the freedoms we often take for granted were secured through extraordinary sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 This Memorial Day marked reflection and remembrance to start summer during a big anniversary year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[89082,27412,128,130,129,88333,18216,2349],"class_list":["post-202310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-fallen-heroes","tag-memorial-day","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-remembrance","tag-sacrifice","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}