Here it is, Memorial Day weekend.
Have you been anticipating the long weekend? Making plans? Let's see--so much to do: Break out the grill, brats, and beer; go to the beach; have the gang over for a cookout; take a weekend vacation; tune in the National Memorial Day Concert; go someplace to get a good seat at a fireworks show; go shopping for holiday deals; take the kids to a favorite theme park; get started on that big outdoor project you've been planning for months; go camping; settle in front of the TV to watch racing from Indy, Charlotte, or Santa Anita; go to the cemetery.
Huh? Wait--what?
You do get the word "Memorial" that gives this day its meaning, right?
Memorial Day, as designated by Congress, is the last Monday in May. The day is set aside specifically as a time to remember and honor deceased members of this country's armed forces who gave their lives in defense of the Constitution.
At this time, when the very foundation of the United States of America is under attack by domestic forces inimical to democracy, it is important to remember that members of the armed services, like all federal officers, take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution.
From the Revolutionary War to the continuing actions in the Middle East, approximately 1,264,493 Americans have given their lives to defend this nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
To the end of her days my grandmother called this day Decoration Day because that was its name when she was a girl. It was proclaimed and so named in 1868 by General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic as a day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion [Civil War], and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”
Perhaps we should revert to the original name. It would provide a somewhat more concrete notion of what the day is about than the rather ephemeral "memorial." The act of decorating would help us remember and honor our dead.
Then maybe we could move that visit to the cemetery to the top of our list.
--- Diogenes, 29 May 2021