These days, Memorial Day is just part of the first big weekend of the summer. It means barbecues, drinking beer outdoors, and for those who have them, swimming pool openings.

And, well, yes, everyone knows in the back of their minds that there's a serious purpose behind the day; that it's a day when we honor those who've served in our military and especially those who gave their lives on battlefields far away.

In fact, it was originally called Decoration Day, and it began May 30, 1868, as a day of remembrance for the Union dead in the Civil War. It was set for the last Monday of May because that was close to the day when the United States was united again after the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865. (There were earlier Memorial Days, in specific locations, such as Sharpsburg, Maryland, site of the battle of Antietam, but this was the beginning of a national day of remembrance.)

After World War II, it was expanded to cover American soldiers who died in any war, and it began to be called Memorial Day.

Those two great wars changed this nation like no others. The Civil War cost around 625,000 soldiers' lives in a nation of less than 40 million (including the South). World War II took 405,000 American servicemen's lives.

Those two wars also involved this nation like no others. Every town, hamlet, and farm sent sons to fight, and perhaps die, in those wars. They took over our national life for their duration. They will always be remembered.

Since World War II, the US has fought in Korea, Vietnam, and most recently Iraq and Afghanistan. Korea and Vietnam were stalemates, and are not remembered fondly. Vietnam tore the nation apart and ended the draft. Today, though 18 years olds must still register, there is no draft � it would be political suicide to reinstitute it.

And so, today's wars are fought by a new kind of army � a professional military that is relatively small, dedicated, very well trained, and largely unknown by the rest of us.

More than 5,000 of those professional troops have now died in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have accomplished much, but it is likely that they will be engaged in that part of the world for decades, perhaps even permanently. Fifty thousand of them have been wounded, but with improved medical care and speedy evacuation, our soldiers' rate of survival from wounds has improved enormously over Vietnam, Korea, or World War II.

Having a professional army do our fighting for us and suffer the casualties has another effect. It has pushed these two conflicts out of our minds. Today, neither of them commands many minutes on TV news or column inches in the papers. And that leads to an immoral lack of concern for our troops and for the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan. If we aren't personally touched by these wars, then we cease to care about them. They must still be fought, and our military continues to take casualties, to lose limbs, and to suffer endless mental traumas on returning home. They don't want to talk about it and we don't want to hear it.

On Memorial Day 2009, we felt that that was wrong, and that in between flipping burgers on the grill and opening another beer, we should all cast a thought in the direction of those who have sacrificed everything for those who sacrifice nothing.

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