A lot of people have it right. Packing up the car with camping gear, floats for the river, a cooler full of beer, and food for a long getaway weekend with the family. Memorial Day is the official kick-off weekend for the summer. We can leave the rains of spring behind and look forward to the time honored tradition of summer vacations, memories, and making the most of the sunshine. At least, most of us can. Those who made it possible, the ones who left it all overseas and laid everything down to allow us to celebrate freely and without fear, don’t get to feel the sun any longer. And the ones left behind still have a shadow hanging over the day.
Memorial Day has become a commercial holiday, the perfect time for summer sales and hocking everything from sunglasses to swim gear. The perfect time for barbecue content and how-tos. We will do it. It is what we do. But Mat Best, founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, has a different mission this Memorial Day. He is taking it upon himself to remind all of us what the true point of this day is: remembrance and honor of those who are left behind. He released a new music video called Folded Flag, where his words combine with an emotional visual of the bond of brotherhood and the sacrifice of service.
I love that people use it for a long weekend, the celebrate, they drink beer, Hell I do it too. But I feel like the holiday has become so commercialized and lost most the essence that it stood for. We hope to be the stewards of this generation, there are a couple moments you have to be respectful of, that are sacred. And I believe Memorial Day is one. – Mat Best, Founder Black Rifle Coffee Company
Doing something different for Memorial Day
Now, there is nothing wrong with the way we celebrate Memorial Day. This isn’t supposed to be a downer—simply a reminder. Folded Flag isn’t meant to kill the vibe of the long weekend with your family. It isn’t meant to remove the float or camping trip from your life. It is meant to be an addition. Just hoping for a return to honoring those who made those trips possible. That is Mat Best’s mission with his company. He told me that as long as he is at the head of Black Rifle Coffee Company, you will never see a discount sale happening over Memorial Day. Instead, he is doing more, not charging less.
“I am a man of action, and I want to present something for those who want to learn more about Memorial Day. I don’t want to be the guy who says, ‘Oh, look, they’re giving discounts.’ It is a free society, do what you want. But what I am going to do is be a steward of the things that matter, and that is what is in this music.”
Giving back to those doing more
In true Black Rifle style, releasing a music video to put more emphasis on those who stayed behind for us is only the beginning. This initiative is also pledging a donation to one of the many different philanthropic endeavors of the company.
“This has been a cool journey because I got to meet Jennie Taylor, who runs the Major Brent Taylor Foundation. She is a Gold Star Wife, and we partnered with her and pledged $150,000 to her organization upon the release of this video. And what that is going to do is she is going to go out and bring sixty to seventy Gold Star Families into Fort Benning, and it will be a whole community of resource building specifically for Gold Star Families. I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that if you’re in a rural town, brother, husband dies – there aren’t a lot of resources to carry you through.”
Check out the video for Folded Flag below:
