I’m going to join my brother, Jack, in reviving the old designation for Memorial Day. He wrote an excellent article in regards to the origins: Decoration Day.
Beyond BBQs, extra days off of school, history class and what my parents taught us about the day, I really didn’t give much thought to what was behind Decoration Day. I had no real frame of reference. The Vietnam War was still fresh in the minds of many, but I was a kid.
As I grew up I tended to ignore the holiday atmosphere surrounding the day. I would watch, briefly, little memorials on the news, but again, it all felt so far away, it meant nothing to me.
Then a declaration of hatred hit the United States on November 11, 2001. Granted, I wasn’t in New York and I didn’t lose anyone, but I watched the two towers fall, carrying many innocent lives to their deaths, that coccoon I’d lived in all my life was shattered. Men and women in the military were sent away from home to fight against and bring down a very old enemy.
I began to see the recruiting offices here in Spokane, once dim, dusty and quiet, alive with young people filled with the passion to do something, to fight for the rights they believed in. I remember a day last year when I decided to stop and talk to a couple of the soldiers in one of those offices. They were tall, polite, strong; they seemed like giants. I shook hands with each of them, thanked them for their service to our country, and went on my way. A few months later, I was watching the news and saw the face of one of the soldiers I’d met. He’d been killed in Iraq and the news was doing a story on him. He had come from a long line of soldiers who had fought for freedom in various wars. Including an ancestor who had been a freed slave that fought in the Civil War. The soldier’s father was grief stricken, but proud of his son’s love for America and proud of his sacrifice.
It bothers me to hear the negativity that surrounds the War in Iraq these days. When someone implies that our soldiers, or our government is like the terrorists we’re fighting, it makes me angry.
I love being an American. I know nothing is perfect, but we have freedoms many do not have. We’re able to criticize, harshly, our president and our government without fear of torture and death. We have these freedoms because of those soldiers that have gone in our places, to fight our battles, to defend what we have and what we believe in.
It’s rainy, cold and cloudy today, but I got up this morning and put our flag up. It’s interesting to note, that as far as I can look down my street, there are no flags to be seen.
Remember what we have and think of what is at stake when our brave men and women leave our shores to fight. Enjoy Decoration Day and remember.
