This year it seemed to me that the media recognized Memorial Day with more color and solemnity than I’ve seen in a long time. We were reminded over and over that Memorial Day is really about remembering the sacrifice that each soldier makes.

As a nurse, as one who knows all too well what trauma can exact from a human body, I kept asking myself this question: How ought those of us who work in healthcare best “remember” the sacrifices that have been made?

It goes without saying that it isn’t hard for healthcare workers to actually picture the sacrifices—everything from loss of life to loss of limb to loss of mental stability. And yet this isn’t the sort of “remembering” we’re inclined to do at the end of a long workday (or on the rare holiday when we are so fortunate to have off along with everyone else!)

For some of us “remembering” might mean mourning: a wreath placed on a grave or at a war memorial, a moment of quiet reflection and prayer.

For others it might mean patriotism: flags and marching bands, convertibles carrying war heroes, gun salutes, the Blue Angels breaking the sound barrier overhead.

In the past, on Memorial Day, I’ve been more inclined to join the mourners. A veteran myself (I served as an Army nurse on the burn ward during the Vietnam War), I find patriotic displays offensive when they blind us to the fact that, beyond those parades moving through the dappled light of May, the bodies of precious loved ones have been crushed in war, perhaps as recently as only a moment ago.

I’ve been reading about the 1.8 million veterans who don’t have health insurance, the hundreds of thousands of veterans coming back with psychological wounds who can’t get the care they need from the VA, veterans committing suicide at the highest rates seen in decades.

I’ve been thinking, How is this possible? As a nation, have we forgotten our debt to each soldier who has served?

It occurs to me that healthcare workers, who have seen it all, are able to speak powerfully about this forgetting that is going on in our country—and not only in the military—when it comes to providing decent and affordable healthcare for the sick and wounded. We can “remember” in a way that is neither quietly mournful nor blindly patriotic. We can say what we know. And people will listen.

As for me, I will do my own remembering by writing to my Senators. I will remind them that “supporting the troops” means fully funding healthcare for them and their families. Moreover, in honor of the sacrifices all soldiers have made to this country, I will continue to speak out until all of us—the rich and the poor alike, the old veteran and the young veteran alike—get the care that our strong nation surely ought to provide for its citizens.

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