TheBanyanTree: Memorial Day

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan,
national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order
No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on
the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By
1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to
acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World
War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting
in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is
now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by
Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a
three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have
an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19
in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in
South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and
Tennessee.
>From http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

My family is not a military family.  I have some distant cousins who joined
the service, but serving our country is not something we seem to do
voluntarily.  My mother’s father and his brothers served during World War II
and my father’s father served during World War I.  He got the Purple Heart.
I remember the Purple Heart magazine coming to our house after he died (not
from his service, but of natural, old age causes) and looking through it.  I
didn’t understand it, but I thought it was interesting with its cover page
lettering done in purple.

Ray was in the Army during the Korean War, but only had to spend a few
minutes in Korea before he was shipped to Japan.  Ray had a knack for
picking up Japanese and he became an interpreter for the duration of his
tour of duty.  One of Ray’s grandsons is now stationed in Japan.  He’s in
the Navy.  Another one of Ray’s grandsons was in the Army and he served in
Korea, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  His emails about Afghanistan and Iraq were
horrifying, probably stuff the Bush administration doesn’t want anyone to
know about.

I always thought Memorial Day was a day to honor our dead.  I remember going
to Fort Snelling with my parents where my father’s father is buried.  Each
grave had a little American flag on it and I thought that was pretty cool.
My ex-husband used to take his mother for Memorial Day services at the
cemetery where his father and brother were buried.  My Dad and stepmother
used to attend services at the cemetery where my mother and my stepmother’s
first husband were buried.  It seems just recently that I realized Memorial
Day was a day to honor the war dead.

The sun came out yesterday, finally breaking up a long and dreary week of
cool temperatures and rain, and it’s still shining this morning.  I got our
American flag out of the closet and slid the pole into its bracket on the
front of the house.  It’s the first time this summer our flag is proudly
displayed.  What happened to all the flags that were flying after 9/11?  It
seems we see less and less of the American flag as each year passes.

And yet our war dead keeps piling up, more and more with each passing day,
and no one seems to care.  The fighting is far away and doesn’t cause anyone
any individual hardship, so why worry about it?  Our newspaper had a major
cover story in yesterday’s edition about soldiers who were brain damaged in
the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts and described the rehabilitation process
they’re going through at Fort Snelling.  I don’t see Bush and Rumsfeld and
Rice showcasing these heroes.

Military recruitment is way down.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure out why.  This war has no meaning.  It hasn’t stopped terrorists from
blowing up people.  It wasn’t like the World Wars, where the bad guys were
known and the rules of conflict were clear, and my grandfathers eagerly
volunteered to serve.  No, this war just drones on and on just like Vietnam
did, except there are not as many military personnel involved, so it doesn’t
get us as angry.  And yet, Rumsfeld wants to shut down bases.  I can’t
figure that out.  We don’t have enough people to fight a nasty,
guerilla-type war, and yet he wants to decrease the amount of people
fighting it.

Our flag is waving proudly in the breeze today, representing the men and
women who have their lives on the line every moment they’re in the military,
no matter where they are serving.  I wish I could do more to help them
besides send letters trying to end this horrible conflict.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
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http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

They say that age is all in your mind.  The trick is keeping it from
creeping down into your body.  ~Author Unknown