I do. I am a part of the "Quiet Few", who still believe in honoring those individuals who paid the ultimate price to provide you and me with a place to live where we are free to do most anything that doesn't infringe on our fellow American's Freedom. What does Memorial Day have to do with it?
Here is a short history of Memorial Day. It is one of the few holidays that most agree that can not be traced to one person, one city, or to one originator.
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day.
Memorial Day was originally a day for honoring Civil War dead by decorating their graves. Both Northern and Southern States celebrated the occasion. The day for the celebration was never defined by the North or the South and States celebrated it by their own choice. Memorial Day was celebrated as a day of reconciliation and coming together to honor those who gave their all and it mattered not whether they wore the Blue or the Gray.
There is evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's (Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920).
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).
In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Field" Moina Michael replied with her own 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.
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966.
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.
The Holiday Act of 1971 states that Memorial Day will be celebrated on the last Monday of May, thereby ensuring that Memorial Day will create a long weekend holiday.
A white house memorandum to the heads of the Executive Branches of our Government in 2000 announced the program called "National Moment of Remembrance" who's purpose was to ask all Americans to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect at 3 P.M. local time on Memorial day.
The "Memorial Day Weekend" which was ensured by the "Holiday Act of 1971" has lost it's meaning for most Americans. Many Americans today, have forgotten the purpose of it's origin and are more into the long holiday weekend. Most believe that it is a weekend to show respect to all of their own family who have passed away.
Many people feel that the Holiday Act of 1971 is most responsible for Americans forgetting the meanings and traditions of Memorial Day. There are groups that believe that instead of it being celebrated on the last Monday in May, that it should be celebrated once again on the 30th of May. Actually, Senator Inouye from Alaska introduced bill "S 189 to the Senate" which proposes to restore the traditional day of observance to May 30th, no matter what day it falls on. Representative Gibbons introduced House (H.R. 1474) for the same purpose. These bills were introduced in 1999, but no further action on the bills has occurred.
We sincerely need to observe Memorial Day and honor those that have fallen to preserve our way of life here in America and around the World.
There is no need to wait till Memorial Day to have a moment of silence for those who have fallen in defense of our country. You may want to listen to the woeful sound of "TAPS" during your moment of silence.
Click on the link. TAPS
