May 29, 2008
From the Crow's Nest: The moods of Memorial Day
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Proper observance of Memorial Day is complex, even paradoxical, leaving many Americans feeling conflicted about how they have reacted to this week’s holiday and its purpose.
On the one hand, we pay homage to the men and women who gave their lives while in military service during wars. Then, in what seems incongruous amid somber ceremony, we wish each other “Happy Memorial Day.” In truth, though, we need not feel ambivalent. We salute our war heroes both ways.
Uniforms and flags, bands and banners, make a colorful spectacle as traditional parades file down Main Street U.S.A. They evoke soul-stirring memories of those who once marched off to war and never came back.
Yet, within the ranks also are squads of children, some in baseball uniforms and others in garish face-paint and costumes as they cavort with their dads in Indian Guide and Indian Princess programs. They file by rather haphazardly, certainly not in step and cadence of regular parade units. They chat and laugh and wave to friends and, all in all, have lots of fun.
Is that inappropriate? Certainly not. Youngsters having fun with their families and friends is an integral part of the American way of life, a way of life that our honored heroes died to preserve. By enjoying it, we demonstrate how much we value it. And that validates and exalts the courage and sacrifice of those who gave their lives in its defense.
In cemeteries all across the land, orators inspire hushed audiences with messages of patriotism, effusive praise of the valor of our military personnel and unending gratitude for those who placed themselves in harm’s way for their country and its people.
Nearby, tiny flags flutter from gravetops. A firing squad’s salute and the mournful notes of a bugler’s “Taps” linger in the stillness. Tears well up in a million eyes. Grateful Americans remember and remain in awe of the bravery of those who went off to far-away places, places they never had heard of, places where strangers shot at them.
Soon, family groups drift away, impatient to get on with the long weekend and the day’s fun or big sales at shopping centers. Beaches and backyard barbecues beckon. It’s a day for the golf course, a day for baseball games and the race cars at the Indianapolis 500.
Sure, it’s a sharp departure from the solemnity of cemetery exercises and remembrances, but not at all from the objectives of Memorial Day. Indeed, engaging in our favorite pastimes is certainly an exemplary way for Americans to show they appreciate them. And on Memorial Day we become ever more aware of the fact that we can continue to indulge in them only because of the tremendous sacrifices that had been made to preserve them for us.
After all, the pursuit of happiness is among the “unalienable rights” proclaimed in the nation’s “birth certificate,” the Declaration of Independence that spelled out the ideals that brave Americans died to institute and defend throughout history.
Thus, tribute to our fallen soldiers can and does take many forms. And on this day of special and personal remembrance, all of them come into sharper focus. Solemnity and gaiety are altogether right and proper, not at all in contrast. Either and both heed Abraham Lincoln’s post-war observation that “a nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.”
It has been that way since 1868 when Gen. William Logan encouraged Army wives to adorn the graves of Civil War soldiers with flowers and flags, giving rise to what was initially called “Decoration Day.” Observed only sporadically over the next several decades, it finally became Memorial Day and was proclaimed a national holiday in 1971 by President Richard M. Nixon.
Even the spotty history of the Memorial Day observance as it evolved into an official national holiday is reflective of the nation itself. The United States is a “mongrel nation,” sewn together out of bits and pieces like a quilt, a fusion of the ideals and ideas of Americans through the ages. So, too, is the Memorial Day observance an amalgamation of attitudes and customs of all who respect American heroes.
Indeed, the nation’s democracy will continue to evolve as long as heroes ensure that the American flag flies. Long may it wave.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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