At this event, a reading of Civil War veteran and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s "In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched with Fire" will serve as the starting point for a discussion of the meaning and importance of Memorial Day.

Since 1776, the survival of freedom in the world has depended again and again on the strength and success of the arms of the United States.

But few inside Washington think Americans are concerned about sequestration. House Armed Services Committee Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes (R-Va.) wants to change that. He’s embarking on the “Defending Our Defenders” national tour to conduct installation oversight and hold local town-hall meetings to better understand the real impact of sequestration.

Two weeks before Memorial Day, AEI Senior Fellow and public opinion expert Karlyn Bowman -- along with researcher Andrew Rugg -- examines American public opinion on a variety of military/defense related topics now in the news.

American identity, character, and civic life are shaped by many things, but decisive among them are our national memories—of our long history, our triumphs and tragedies, our national aspirations and achievements. Crucial to the national memory are the words our forebears wrote, to show us who we are and what we might yet become.