Memorial Day: How We Can Honor, Remember, Educate, and Inspire

On the first night in May every year, The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association (ETVMA) gathers to honor our community’s veterans and to celebrate the life of one of fifteen East Tennessee Medal of Honor Recipients.

ETVMA has as it’s mission statement a simple, yet profound, set of tasks; To Honor, To Remember, To Educate and To Inspire. 

As with so many seemingly simple statements these may appear easy to accomplish and a simple matter for our everyday lives. But like many others statements, this one, in four parts, is much more difficult to accomplish than simply saying the words.

Two of the four, Honor and Remember, look backwards in time. Those words reach back to tell 6,400 East Tennesseans and their compatriots from across the state and the country how we appreciate their service to our nation. We give thanks to the families that sacrificed loved ones during times of conflict.

The other two, Educate and Inspire look forward. They tell us to educate and inspire our community and our upcoming generations about the valor, the unselfishness, the sacrifice, and gifts to us from the 6,400 and their families.

Here’s the challenging part for all of us: how can we incorporate; To Honor, To Remember, To Educate and To Inspire into our everyday lives? Imagine the impact if we approached our families, friends, colleagues, and even strangers with this mindset – carrying these values into our homes, places of worship, and workplaces.

As Memorial Day approaches, let’s take the opportunity to honor each other, those in our lives, and the heroes this day commemorates. By choosing to remember, educate, and inspire one another, we place the focus on others, not ourselves – a truly meaningful way to celebrate this day.

Tim Eichhorn is past President and a current board member of the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association. If you’d like to know more about how to support ETVMA click here.

Tim Eichhorn is a Partner and Senior Advisor with Rather & Kittrell.