There’s something fitting about today being both Memorial Day and what would have been John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday.

It appears to be a worthy point for reflection on the countless times when a single event has seemingly sealed the fate of the world for better or worse, joining the never-ending list of junctures at which the curve of history could have broken in a different direction.

What if JFK had never been shot? Or his brother Robert, for that matter?

Would over a million people still have been killed in a war deemed unnecessary through the sober lens of history? Would almost sixty-thousand American soldiers still have lost their lives? Would generations of civilians still have been mutilated by the chemical weapons we deployed?

What about the tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands murdered by our secret bombing campaigns in Cambodia and Laos? We can only wonder in vain. So it goes.

That’s why it’s important that today is also Memorial Day, because there’s a paradoxical truth to our American ethos that holds to this day: you can hate the war, as long as you love the soldier.

Regardless of how we might feel about U.S. military involvement in any number of conflicts, we owe an unwavering debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our nation.

They gave their lives so that we can live ours with the peace of mind that so many people around the world don’t have the luxury of taking for granted.

Kennedy’s most famous line was probably from his first inaugural, when he implored his fellow Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” a message that rings true today perhaps louder than ever.

At a time when so many of us seem disheartened with our country, we ought to stop dwelling on what we feel it’s not doing for us, and ask ourselves what we can do for it.

We ought to take today to appreciate those who gave their lives fighting to build, defend, and preserve the nation that we call home.

Whether they fought the British under Washington or the Nazis under Eisenhower, our country would not and could not be what it is today without the sacrifices made by those who took up arms to defend it.

In that spirit, we should remember the words of Kennedy, another great American who lost his life in service to our nation, and we should take this opportunity we’ve been given to make our country everything we want it to be.