Take a moment to honor the fallen
The debt we owe belongs to us all, whether we agree with the politics of war or not.
Americans have increasing trouble with solemn holidays. Our collective relief at having an extra day off usually overshadows the day’s original intent.
Perhaps no holiday suffers from this more than Memorial Day. The children are restless, ready to be released from school. The rest of us are eager to head outside, perhaps even to the lakes, if there is enough water and no rain in the forecast.
However, Memorial Day is a day to remember those military servicemen and women who have lost their lives while serving our country in times of war. While we may spend 364 days of the year discussing, debating and dissecting the definition of freedom, today is the day that we pay our respects to those who paid the ultimate price for that freedom.
Originally Decoration Day, the observance was started as a way to recognize the fallen from the Civil War. Southern women laid flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers. Freed slaves in South Carolina paid tribute to dead Union soldiers and similar ceremonies took place in New York and elsewhere. The idea of a national remembrance was put forward by former Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a large Union veterans association.
Logan set the day as May 30 — not the anniversary of any battle — and in his General Order No. 11 wrote: “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”
His aim was to not only honor fallen soldiers, but the families they left behind as well. Per his order:
“Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sa- cred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.”
Decoration Day eventually became Memorial Day and it became a federal holiday in 1967. The observance was moved from its traditional date of May 30 to the last Monday in May under the Federal Uniform Holiday Act, which turned three other federal holidays into three-day weekends.
The passage of time has changed not only Memorial Day’s position on the calendar, but American society’s proximity to war.
As Logan’s inaugural comments suggest, the scale of the Civil War meant no community was unscathed. Even in one family’s fortunate return, a neighbor would be left in mourning. Through both world wars, Korea, and Vietnam, the draft and two-year rotations of enlisted troops meant the prospect of loss and the reality it was never far away. Neighbors knew what it meant if a uniformed officer knocked at your door. Reading the daily newspaper usually entailed a quick check for familiar names in the lists of the dead and the missing.
Smaller wars, an all-volunteer military and the practice of multiple deployments have reduced the universe of Americans who are roiled by the waves of profound loss. Families are often ensconced in military communities, rather than scattered among civilians. And in modern war, soldiers are more likely to be injured than perish in combat.
Even so, it should not be solely left to the spouses, parents and children of those who have fallen to honor their memory. The debt belongs to us all, whether we agree with the politics of war or not. Their pledge was to go when and where their country asked, for the good of the entire nation.
So, this weekend, take a moment to reflect. Visit a cemetery, plant flags and poppies, and take a child with you. Attend a Memorial Day parade, or stop by the Capitol grounds and visit the state’s war memorials, including the Texas Vietnam Veterans Monument.
There will be plenty of time for beer and barbecue.