Dear Editor:
Memorial Day was the benchmark holiday we lived for as kids because it was the official start of summer. Swimming pools would be open, picnics and bar-b-ques to follow, and maybe a vacation or Sunday drive to somewhere ‘different’, if we were really lucky.
Memorial Day is indeed all those things, but it’s a lot more. Like many of us don’t know the real meaning of Christmas, there are also many that don’t know the real import of Memorial Day either. Sadly, the significance of Memorial Day is not as intuitive as we’d like it to be, and in fact, must really be taught if we are to know its true meaning. Sadly, we aren’t born patriotic, as patriotism must be grown, developed and nurtured.
Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day) has its roots from the simple practice of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers and honoring the dead. Many towns claim to be the first to hold such a ceremony, but the observance on May 30th, 1868 held at Arlington Cemetery presided over by an Ohio Congressman that would later become President James Garfield was probably one of the most noteworthy early ones. That day, 5,000 participants decorated 20,000 graves of both Union and Confederate dead buried there. (Today more than 400,000 rest at Arlington.) The practice grew city by city, state by state, until just after World War I, when it became an occasion for honoring all who died in all of America’s wars and was made a national holiday. Honors have since been expanded to all those who have died in military service.
During America’s history over 41 million have served in our Armed Forces around the globe. The very freedom we enjoy, and perhaps take for granted sometime, is ensured by men and women who are generally nameless to most of us, but nevertheless are deeply loved by some mom, dad, wife, husband, or sweetheart, and many family and friends somewhere. They offer their service, and sometimes so very much more, for each of us, to live free in this great country, that despite the extreme polarization we see all about us on so very many topics, apparently is still the envy of all the Earth. So especially if you are an influencer in a young person’s life, before heading to the pool, the river, the Lake, or a bar-b-que this Memorial Day, take a minute to drop by a local cemetery where our fallen military rest; and perhaps just say a silent prayer and whisper “thank you.” And take that young person with you!!
As President Reagan reminded us so well, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
Dan Schnieders
Jefferson City
