What are you doing on Monday, May 25, at 3 p.m.? For many, the world will continue to move, just as it did a moment before or the day before. For some, however, time will stop.
Time will stop in order to remember lives in service to country and to others.
For the Few
It is a noble and honorable thing to give one’s life in service to a cause greater than oneself. Most of the world, religious and secular, hold this value above all others, and we, as Americans, have a particularly special place in our hearts for those who have died in the cause of personal belief, whether it be a belief in country or in something else.
Memorial Day began as a celebration of the fallen of the Civil War ? a war in which almost as many men and women died as a result of the conflict as in all other U.S. wars combined. From the website of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs:
?Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans ? the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) ? established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.?
Eventually, this day became known as ?Memorial Day,? and is celebrated on the last Monday of the month. The most recent additional observance of the day was signed into law on December 28, 2000 ? and out of the National Moment of Remembrance Act came the request to ?reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble event that that day is intended to be.? ?In that congressional action, we are meant to stop at 3 p.m. local time, and remember.
For the Fallen on Memorial Day
No matter what one may believe about the flags of nations, the United States flag-draped coffin is another thing entirely.
Despite all the conflict and politics ? and despite all the bickering of wars and rumors of wars, the flag-draped coffin is a symbol in order to ?honor the memory of a Veteran’s military service to his or her country.?
For the Living on Memorial Day
On Memorial Day, I put aside all of my politics. As a Veteran, on Memorial Day, I know of no higher honor than to visit the graves of my fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines and honor them for their service to something greater than themselves.
On that day, I ask the same of you ? put aside your politics. Do not thank a living Veteran, for today is the day to remember those who have gone before.
Wherever you are at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 25, let time stop ? just for a moment ? and remember.
