Memorial Day - 2008

Seems like we've lost touch with what Memorial Day is all about. It seems that for too many Americans it's just a three day weekend, the first of the summer, the beginning of summer. And for so many, not a thought about what this holiday is about or what it signifies.

Memorial Day is a day to honor and mourn those that gave their lives in service to this country. What started in the South as Decorations Day, usually May 30th, was officially made a holiday in 1971 as part of the National Holiday Act. It then went to the last Monday of May. Recently there have been attempts to increase awareness about the significance and history behind the holiday. A "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps." Seems like the least we can do.

And if you are out and about and are offered a Red Poppy from Veteran, make a donation and wear it. In 1915 Moina Michael wrote this poem:


We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led,

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies



From that poem came the adoption by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the Buddy Poppy Program to raise money for verterans and widows.