Welcome to JFK in The Enduring Secret.

I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.

Summer is finally here. It's Memorial Day. Pools are open. It's a long weekend. It's one of a

handful of holidays that is seared into our mind as an American. Memories starting very young in life.

Perhaps filled by a summer outing with mom and dad grilling hot dogs and

hamburgers or a parade down the main street of your local town with a group of shriners

in their tiny little cars making the event unforgettable in some long ago moment of your memory.

Older veterans still in good enough shape to walk or ride or in the parade and truly

are the main event. I remember them in short-sleeved white shirts with a VFW hat on and perhaps

a characteristically large silver or gold wristwatch because that was something worn back in the day, long before an

Apple watch turned a watch into a small computer. Somewhere close by is a long line of small

American flags lining a busy street in town. It's a tribute repeated all across America, and it's done a little

differently in each town, and sometimes you might see small white crosses by each of these flags

in the name of an American serviceman permanently displayed on it. Of course, the most prominent of those white crosses can be found in a

familiar pattern at places like Arlington National Cemetery and places like the cemeteries that are

located just along the beaches at Normandy in France, where the men themselves were laid to rest.

Each year, those little white crosses, the ones that line the street in our local towns,

while they're brought out for a few days, just to remind us of who exactly went before

and paid the price of things for each of us. A price that a good many of us now

don't even understand or remember or even acknowledge. To many of us, it's just an extra day off

if your company follows the schedule of federal holidays. And it's mostly a beautiful day

of the year, just starting to get summer warm. Somewhere, the meaning of it all has perhaps lost some of

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