On Memorial Day...celebrate more than just the first day of summer
Next Monday is Memorial Day, the first, official day of the Summer Holiday Season, and we’ll have fun. Boy, will we.
We’ll celebrate with get-togethers, like outdoor barbecues and picnics. Maybe we’ll attend a baseball game, or play softball, volleyball, or perhaps have a round of golf. We’ll eat, drink and make merry and we’ll bring in the summer with a bang.
More important than all that, however, much more, it is good to remember that it is also a solemn occasion, and why it is that we celebrate it in the first place.
It is the day on which we Americans stop to formally honor our deceased military veterans and war dead. Too many of us, I think, forget that in our revelry.
Never forget……
……The Continental Army Bluecoats, rebels against the Crown, risking their lives for American independence, fighting the crack British regular army Redcoats...the Grand Army of the Republic soldier in his dusty, heavy wool Union Blues, charging across a green field and into withering Confederate cannon fire...and the gray-coated Johnny Rebs firing those cannons...Teddy Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders, fighting their way up San Juan Hill, yelling “Remember the Maine!”...the soupbowl-helmeted Doughboys, late arrivals to the muddy, disease-ridden trenches of France, tipping the balance back in favor of the Allies and helping to defeat The Hun...the steel-pot-helmeted GIs, whipping the Axis in Europe and the South Pacific...US forces leading the UN fight in the Korean Peninsula, pushing the invaders all the way to the Chinese border, then helping to maintain the uneasy peace there for over 50 years after the Armistice was signed...the US military forces in South Vietnam, who kept the Communist North at bay over a period spanning three decades...US forces leading the fight and pushing the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait and beating them in less than 100 hours...our present forces fighting our terrorist enemies in Afghanistan and to bring a stable democracy to Iraq...
Before you head off to that picnic, barbecue, or ballgame, or before you tee off, why not attend a memorial ceremony or two? Your local American Legion or VFW chapters can probably give you times and directions. Maybe you could stop by the cemetery on your way to that fun get-together, and decorate the grave of an old friend or family member who served in uniform. Bring some flowers, or better yet....a flag. They deserve it.
Remember and honor those who gave us, and those who fought or fight to defend, the freedoms we Americans so enjoy today. Happy Memorial Day.