Robin SmithMeat and veggies for the grill – check. Ice and beverages for the cooler – check. Sunscreen, lawn chairs and gear for the outdoors – check. A moment to reflect on the sacrifice of our heroes and she-roes of America?
It’s Memorial Day, a day most enjoy as the kickoff for summer, the end of the school year, a day off work but maybe not a day of memory for those who have died in defense of our freedom and liberty.
The national holiday began as “Decoration Day” when family and community would decorate and tend the graves of soldiers who died in the Civil War.
Exactly 148 years ago, May 30, 1868, 5,000 people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the first “Decoration Day” exercises that included the placement of flowers atop the graves of about 15,000 who fell during the ravages of the Civil War. Ohio Congressman James A. Garfield, later to be elected America’s 20th president, offered remarks as a veteran of the Civil War, where he had served as a major general of Union forces.
Garfield respectfully spoke of the war dead at this inaugural event: “For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue when death stamped on them the great seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can never blot.”
His words transcend the expanse of time but the span of just a single war. A quick read of his other comments should give us pause on this day to pay tremendous honor to the men and women who gave their lives in the fight for America – not just the sovereign nation but the ideology that permits unparalleled freedoms.
He continued, “I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost; that the characters of men are molded and inspired by what their fathers have done ” and, in our current day, the characters rooted in courage of men and women serve as fuel on the fire of freedom.
Then-Congressman Garfield made no effort to hide his decision to replace soaring rhetoric with the deepest respect of silence and simple words: “I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of 15,000 men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung “
In today’s busy celebration of things truly American – fun, fellowship, sport and food – take a moment to set aside for respect. Make that gesture among your friends and family to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice of life that ended as “a poem, the music of which can never be sung.”
If you have children, consider placing an empty place setting at your table to honor those who will never return to their families, careers, personal dreams or ambitions. If you exit a shopping area and are offered an opportunity to buy paper poppies – the official flower of Memorial Day – from the American Legion, do so to generate discussion and show respect.
Regardless, find a way to apply a timeless truth that: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Countless men and women, supported by their families, have made the ultimate sacrifice for each of us. Let’s use Memorial Day to honor the dead who have made America “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Robin Smith, a former Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, is the owner of Rivers Edge Alliance.