New Mexico United States
Member #12,305
March 10, 2005
2,984 Posts
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Historically it's a day to remember the men & women who died while serving in the military. But to many it's just the beginning of summer or the end of the school year and a 3 day weekend (not for me) to get away from work. I guess if someone has lost a loved one, Memorial Day can be a special day to pay a visit to his or her grave, whether or not he/she was in the military. When I grew up, it was always May 30. I'm not sure when it was changed to the last Monday in May. Very interesting article on the main site for the Arlington National Cemetery in the visitor's section:
For those who don't want to read it, here is what a monument to Confederate soldiers reads. I think its sentiment expresses what Memorial Day is all about...and I'm not just referring to the Civil War.
Not for fame or reward Not for place or for rank Not lured by ambition Or goaded by necessity But in simple Obedience to duty As they understood it These men suffered all Sacrificed all Dared all-and died
Excellent post, justxploring.
I heard a moving address from an elderly Navajo at the Memorial Day ceremony at the Santa Fe National Cemetary in 1992. He was one of the surviving Navajo Code Talkers.
The old man sat through all the lofty speeches by politicians and preachers referring to those lines of graves around us as heroes and freedom fighters. When his turn came he gestured with his chin to the graves of the Navajo scouts and Apache scouts who died leading the US Army against the Apache and Navajo.
"Don't insult me by calling the men in these graves freedom fighters. Don't insult my people by calling them heroes.
"Those Navajo, those Apache are buried here because their own people didn't want them after what they'd done.
"I fought in the Pacific during WWII. I saw many men die. They died in many ways and for many reasons. Some died before ever boarding the troop ships.
"This day," he whispered, "Is our way of remembering the dead. Some were our enemies. Some might have been our friends.
"Some of them died fighting for freedom, some died fighting against it."
His arm raised and swept the sky over the cemetary.
"Those men died for our mistakes. We owe it to them to remember those mistakes. Only in remembering our mistakes and through doing so, remembering the men in those graves, will they not have died in vain."