A day to think of freedom and its costs

“To say the least, a war will drastically disturb everything in our lives, including our great enjoyment of sports.”#8212;Bill GalloJust the fact there#146;s a Memorial Day is a reminder that the sticker price on freedom is never discounted.

The lead-up to this holiday was highlighted by Navy SEALS taking out Osama bin Laden on May 1.

Between then and now, Americans continued to enjoy all the freedoms our fighting men and women make possible.

Like, this month we were free to laugh with or at Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco as he tried to ride a bull in a rodeo.

Women at Arlington Park, and some men, were free to wear outrageous hats that were both fancy and funny.

Michigan football fans were free to take a shot at Ohio State coach Jim Tressel with a billboard that read, #147;Liar, liar, vest on fire.#148;

Amid all the shenanigans, on May 10 New York Daily News sports cartoonist and columnist Bill Gallo died.

Gallo was a Marine in World War II and fought the Japanese in four different Central Pacific engagements.

Mr. Gallo: #147;Imagine trying your best to kill a man who, after all, is a stranger. You must kill him or he#146;ll kill you.#148;Gallo expressed that sentiment in a November 2002 column when America was on the verge of embarking on another war, this one in the Middle East.

The words of the great Gallo comprise a compelling companion to the SEALS taking out bin Laden early in the month to Memorial Day parades on its final weekend.

Thanks to our freedom fighters, May included Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall feeling free to post controversial opinions on Twitter about bin Laden#146;s demise.

Then every single one of us felt the same freedom of speech to rant our disgust at Mendenhall.

All NFL players and owners were free to bicker over $9 billion even as so many of their fellow Americans struggle to pay the mortgage.

Mr. Gallo: #147;You look at old eyes on 19-year-olds, the eyes of someone who is terribly sad and worn from combat #133; He is a true veteran whose fighting days are over but who will never forget what he#146;s been through.#148;Young people like that provide sports with the freedom to be goofy, selfish, zany, greedy, right and wrong.

We#146;re all free to laugh at nonsense like Benny the Bull sliding across the court, knocking down bowling pins and crashing into a mattress.

Adam Dunn and Carlos Pena are free to receive millions of dollars to underachieve, while a SEAL receives a fraction of that for overachieving.

Mr. Gallo: #147;The smell of dead bodies is another thing you never forget. It#146;s a sickening odor that stays with you for all the time you#146;re in the combat zone. You smell it, taste it and gag on it. It#146;s horrible.#148;As a result a baseball team of which more is expected is free to allow Ozzie to be Ozzie through what is adversity by sports standards.

All teams are free to build statues of athletes while our troops are relatively underappreciated.

Mr. Gallo: #147;When they talk today about having #145;a different kind of war,#146; I still remember what hot, flying metal does to human flesh #133; That never changes.#148;Unfortunately neither does the cost of freedom, which is why Memorial Day remains necessary.

mimrem@dailyherald.com