In every small community in America, the month of May finds flags lining the main roads through town. These temporary red, white, and blue monuments to those fallen in the line of duty serve as a stark reminder of the sacrifices that have been made in the name of freedom, and their presence marks the arrival of one of America’s more solemn holidays: Memorial Day.
The history of Memorial Day is actually a mild source of controversy. Originally known as “Decoration Day” until it was made a federal holiday in 1971, historians differ over who deserves credit for commemorating the first Memorial Day. Some credit a group of South Carolina freedmen who honored deceased African-Americans in the weeks after the Civil War ended in 1865, while others say the honor goes to a group of southern women who placed flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers in 1866. Official recognition goes to General John Logan, who led a group of Union veterans known as the Grand Army of the Republic and called for May 30 to be a day set aside to honor those who had fallen in military service. While we now celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, the holiday is far more than just a long weekend barbecue day. Rather, it is a day when we as a grateful nation set aside time to honor the memory and service of those who died while protecting freedom.
The brave men and women who serve and have served this nation deserve nothing less than your total admiration, and those who died in uniform should be honored by all as the heroes they are. The liberties to say what you want, do what you want, love who you want, worship how you want, and live how you want were bought and paid for by generations of Americans willing to fight and die in service to something greater. A friend recently relayed a conversation he had with a veteran who provided a soldier’s perspective when he said, “When I chose to put on the uniform, I willingly gave up my freedom for yours. For thirty years, I wore what I was told to wear, ate when told to eat, marched when told to march, and did absolutely everything I was ordered to do, and I did all that so Americans could keep living without being told what to do.”
As President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently put it in his 1863 address honoring those who died at Gettysburg: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” Every man or woman who wears the uniform in service of America willingly signs a blank check for a price up to and including his or her life, and to those who paid that price out of a willingness to serve this great land – and those who may pay it yet – we owe you a debt of undying gratitude that reaches from sea to shining sea and beyond.
I leave you with the words of singer Aaron Lewis, who penned the patriotic lines below (from a song entitled “Folded Flag”) from the point of view of a recently-deceased War in Afghanistan veteran – a man who wanted nothing more than to serve his country when called, and whose body is being returned to his pregnant wife accompanied by the symbol of a thankful nation:
Two men with starched white gloves
Will fold the colors ‘til they touch.
It’s probably more than I deserve,
But I’m proud to get this much.
I’m sending all the love I ever had
Inside this folded flag.
As our nation observes a moment of silence at 3:00 PM today, I ask you to do two things: honor the dead and remember the living. Those who died serving the United States of America – and those who stand ready to defend it still – are the only reason that we have any freedom at all.
By Matt Ford, Upper School History Teacher
