I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day. If you are like me, you spent it with family and friends and some mighty good food. We had a great time at our house.

Recently, I watched the HBO series, “The Pacific.” I hope you saw it because it was a very powerful story of the Pacific battles during World War II. The series was based in part on Eugene Sledge’s memoir “With the Old Breed: at Peleliu and Okinawa,” and Dr. Sledge is a prominent character in the television series.

If you are not familiar with Dr. Sledge, he was from Mobile and spent his life as a professor at the University of Montevallo after the war.

His story, as recounted in his book and the television series, is one of heroism, courage and the horror of war. I highly recommend both to you.

Reading his book and watching the miniseries have caused me to reflect again on the sacrifices our military men and women make to ensure that you and I can continue to enjoy our way of life.

It is so easy to take our freedoms and prosperity for granted; it is easy to forget that our military men and women have endured unbelievable hardship to defend our freedoms.

There is no way I can fully comprehend their sacrifices and there is no possible way I can express my gratitude. A sincere “thank you” seems so inadequate.

We just finished with the primary election in Alabama and many important state and local offices were on the ballot.

Sadly, only about one quarter of Shelby County’s registered voters cast their ballot at this election. When I think of the sacrifices Eugene Sledge and the other men and women of the military made so you and I can have the right to cast our ballot in fair and free elections, it makes me angry that so few of us participated in the election.

I hope I will see you at the polls for the runoff on July 13 and the general election on November 2. My friends, as Americans it is the least we can do.