Memorial Day

By Hank Silverberg

Memorial Day 2019. The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for 18 years. Including the war in neighboring Iraq more than 6,900  members of the American military have been killed, and more than 52,000 have been wounded in this country’s longest war. 

But if you ask most Americans what sacrifices they have made during the so called “war on terror,” you will get a quizzical look.  Unless they have served or have  a close friend or relative who has served in the last two decades, they can’t answer the question.

Memorial Day began after the Civil War as Decoration Day. Individual communities would place flags or wreaths on the graves of their war dead, mostly in northern states. The first official Decoration Day was in upstate New York on May 5th, 1866. It was in a town ironically called Waterloo, which closed all its offices and stores so residents cold decorate the graves of Union War dead with flowers and flags. The tradition grew and a nationwide date of May 30^th was chosen because it was NOT the date of any great battle. By the end of  World War One, many people had started wearing red poppies on May 30 as a reference to a popular poem. 

(See below)

Memorial Day took hold nationwide after World War Two, during which 291, 557 American soldiers, sailors and Marines were killed. I have vivid memories of Memorial Day parades growing up in

(WWII Memorial in Washington NPS photo)

Connecticut in the 60’s and 70's,  where I marched as a Boy Scout behind veterans of World War Two and Korea. 

But Memorial Day did not become an official Federal holiday until 1971 during the height of the Vietnam War. Some skeptics would say it was partly propaganda to bolster an unpopular war, where the warriors were being shunned because of bad decisions by civilian politicians. But in reality, it was just another way for Congress to give Federal workers a three-day weekend like they did when they combined Lincoln and Washington’s birthdays into President’s Day. The date was changed from May 30 to the last Monday in May.  And from then on, Memorial Day sales fit right in with the President’s Day sales. Somehow the somber day of remembrance had lost its meaning.

No disrespect to those who currently serve or veterans, but this is not your day. It was never meant to be. Veteran's Day is November  11. Memorial Day is to remember those who died defending our freedom at Bunker Hill, Bladensburg, Gettysburg, Chateau Thierry, Iwo Jima, Inchon, Hue, Flaujah, Tora Bora and thousands of lesser  know battles on land, at sea, or in the air. It's a day to honor those who gave what Lincoln called their "last full measure of devotion."   

     

                                            

(The smallest National Cemetery in U.S. at Balls Bluff,VA
established 1861 right after the battle. Hank Silverberg photo)  
 

It can be a family day or the first unofficial weekend of summer when we celebrate the freedom for which hundreds of thousands died. But Memorial Day is not a day for hostile rhetoric or insulting tweets. Those who use it as such dishonor the memory of our war dead. 

I don’t fly the flag at home every day. But this weekend, the Stars and Stripes waves proudly outside my home. It is the flag my father my and mother flew outside their home every Memorial Day as I grew up.

Dad served in the Marines during World War Two , and was wounded on Iwo Jima. He didn’t talk about it much, even though his wound eventually put him in a wheelchair for the last 30 years of his life. Like many who fought, he hated war and flew the flag to honor those who didn’t make it home.  

This poem written by a Canadian combat surgeon in 1915, before the United States had entered World War One, but after the carnage of several battles in Belgium, may express the mournfulness of war and its aftermath. It serves as a  fitting tribute to all casualties of war.    

                              In Flanders fields the poppies blow
                      Between the crosses, row on row,
                      That mark our place; and in the sky
                      The larks, still bravely singing, fly
                      Scarce heard amid the guns below.

                      We are the Dead. Short days ago
                      We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
                      Loved and were loved, and now we lie
                      In Flanders fields.

                      Take up our quarrel with the foe:
                      To you from failing hands we throw
                      The torch; be yours to hold it high.
                       If ye break faith with us who die
                       We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
                       In Flanders fields.

                      by John McCrae, May 1915

      ( Your comments and suggestions are welcome below)