OPINION:
Memorial Day asks us to take time out from our daily lives to honor those who gave so much to keep us free.
After the Civil War — the war with the highest number of casualties in our history – the tradition began of decorating the graves of those who died in battle, hence the holiday’s original name, Decoration Day.
The simple gestures of placing flowers on the graves of war dead helped to assuage the suffering of those who lost loved ones in the conflict.
Veterans Day is a holiday for everyone who served in the armed forces. Memorial Day is for those who died serving, from Bunker Hill to San Juan Hill, the Argonne to the Bulge, the Tet Offensive to Desert Storm and beyond.
From 1775 to the present, it’s estimated that more than 1.1 million Americans died for our country, on battlefields everywhere from the United States to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
They fought to liberate, not to colonize. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said America did not engage in empire building and that the only foreign soil we sought was places to bury our dead.
Memorial Day answers the eternal question: Why fight when fighting can be avoided? Pope Leo II has said fighting never solved anything. He could not be more wrong.
If we hadn’t resisted the British crown in 1775-1783, America might still be a very large colony of a very small country. At the time of the Civil War, the South wasn’t prepared to free its slaves without a fight. Except for the Allied resistance during World War II, Germany and Japan would rule the world.
The Islamic republic of Iran has made it abundantly clear that it will never give up its fissionable material voluntarily. Is it worth a fight to keep a maniacal regime from getting a nuclear bomb?
More than a remembrance, Memorial Day is also a pledge reflected in the words of the World War I poem, “In Flanders Field.”
“Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields.”
Brave men died to keep us free. It is our sacred duty to see to it that they did not die in vain.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.