Today is Memorial Day. It is an observance appropriately created as a time to honor those who have served at great cost in the nation’s military service. Yet it is too often overshadowed by the notion that the holiday marks the beginning of the summer season.
The holiday feeling is understandable. By the end of May, most students are out of school, the temperature and humidity have climbed to near-summer levels and the outdoor activities that are synonymous with vacation season are in full swing. Still, the meaning and purpose of a solemn holiday should not be overlooked or lost.
Though Memorial Day is a convenient bridge from spring to summer, it much more than that. It is a day when veterans of military service remember those who served with them. It is a time when those who survived the crucible of combat commemorate the sacrifices in defense of freedom. It is a time, too, that the families of those who served reflect on the sometimes high cost that defending our freedom can exact from those who donned the nation’s uniform.
Memorial Day, though, should not be limited to those with direct ties to military service. It is an occasion when Americans of all ages ought to honor the more than 1.2 million U.S. military men and women who have died in the defense of the nation.
Their service, their unflinching commitment to duty and the willingness with which they imperiled — and too often lost — their lives is what we should remember and rightly bring to public attention today. That tradition infuses the current generation of America’s military. They risk all today and every day in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places around the world. That, too, should be remembered this day.
Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day was established in 1868 to honor those who died in the Civil War. Initially, the observance was for those who wore Union blue, but it immediately was adopted by those who wanted to honor Confederate veterans. It was an unofficial holiday for years, but it played an important role in helping close the wounds the Civil War had inflicted on the country.
In 1971, Congress recognized the last Monday in May, rather than May 30, as the official day to honor the nation’s war dead.
There are monuments commemorating the fallen in the nation’s capital, at other sites across America and in tranquil, well-tended burial grounds around the globe. But the most eloquent monuments to those who served and died for American freedom often are in cemeteries close to home. There is one such place here — at the intersection of Bailey and Holtzclaw Avenues near the heart of the city.
There, in the National Cemetery’s hallowed ground, rest the men and women who answered the call to arms, who did their duty and who served without complaint. Their lives and beliefs were diverse, but all are united in death as they were by their devotion to country. A program and service honoring them begins this morning at 10:30 at the cemetery pavilion.
We owe those who died in war and served in peace far more than a moment of silence on Memorial Day. We are forever in their debt for the freedom they purchased at such high cost. We should remember them today, of course, but we should remember them, as well, every day of the year.