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\nI can get a great deal on a car in the next few days. \u00a0 Electronics are on sale. \u00a0Hotel’s are booked. It’s the beginning of summer! \u00a0All the big networks are wrapping up the TV viewing season. \u00a0Schools across the country are out or are counting the few remaining days.<\/p>\n
What I haven’t seen any place is the mention of a parade. \u00a0Not a word about honoring those that died in the service of our nation. \u00a0 No words to the Gold Star families to let them know we have not forgotten. \u00a0 It saddens me.<\/p>\n
Memorial Day was called Decoration Day as well as Remembrance Day, \u00a0no one really knows what town was the first to celebrate it, \u00a0several claim it as their own. What is known is that it came into being as an idea about the same time in several places in the late 1860’s. \u00a0The Nation was still mourning its dead on both sides of the Civil War. \u00a0In 1868 General \u00a0John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic<\/span>\u00a0 issued an order that May 30 would be Memorial Day, for the First time the graves of Union and Confederate dead in Arlington were decorated with flowers.<\/p>\n By 1890 all of the Northern States were celebrating Memorial Day on May 30th. \u00a0Most southern states still has different days of remembrance. \u00a0The division between the North and South Remained until after WWI when Memorial Day expanded to Include WWI dead as well.<\/p>\n Memorial Day remained May 30 until 1971, \u00a0When Congress passed the National Holiday act, moving Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, giving federal employees a 3 day weekend. Several Bill have been introduced to move Memorial Day back to May 30, all have died in committee.<\/p>\n I share the opinion that Memorial Day started to lose its meaning when it was moved. \u00a0Celebrations and Parades that used to be common place in small towns across the Nation became less common. \u00a0Adding to the problem was the perceived mood of the Nation in the years following Vietnam. \u00a0 The inevitable commercialism \u00a0of all holidays has led to a Generation of Americans that only know Memorial Day for sales, a long weekend and a trip to the lake.<\/p>\n There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the\u00a0Soldiers of the Old Guard\u00a0place small American flags at each of the gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights<\/span>. And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.<\/span><\/p>\n Many feel that memorial day is for remembering all that have died. \u00a0It is my belief that this day needs to remain sacred, and reserved only for those that gave their life for the Nation.<\/p>\n In Flanders Fields<\/p>\n Lt Col. John McCrea MD.<\/p>\n In Flanders fields the poppies blow<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Between the crosses, row on row,<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That mark our place; and in the sky<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The larks, still bravely singing, fly<\/span>
Scarce heard amid the guns below.<\/span>
We are the Dead. Short days ago<\/span>
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Loved and were loved, and now we lie<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Flanders fields.<\/span>
Take up our quarrel with the foe:<\/span>
To you from failing hands we throw<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The torch; be yours to hold it high.<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If ye break faith with us who die<\/span>
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow<\/span>
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Flanders fields.<\/span><\/p>\n