Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's wars. Established in the 1860s during the American Civil War, Memorial Day tapped into the general human need to honor our dead who had contributed honorably to this great country.
Many of us who are beneficiaries of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice have ignored the true meaning of Memorial Day. We often do not observe the day as it should be. It's a day where we actively remember our ancestors, our neighbors, our friends, our love ones and our family members who have given their lives for the betterment of this great nation.
The thing to remember about war is that there are very few moments of individual gallantry. The individual combatant rarely dwarfs his surroundings. No John Waynes to ride through a hale of enemy fire to save the day. In fact, those one-dimensional embodiments of masculine striving are usually the first to die.
Moments of war rarely allow for clarity. War is a chaos where platoons of men are condemned to slaughter one another. War is a horror where one is ordered to kill strangers, to run in the face of enemy fire, to ignore the sight of his friends as they crumple to the ground. This lack of clarity becomes transparent to every soldier as his captain shouts, "Over the top men, everyone out!" In that moment, each soldier finds himself engulfed in death and confusion. There is a scene in Steven Spielberg's film "Saving Private Ryan," in which a young man has his arm blown off. He stumbles around, gazing at his shattered limb, unsure of what to do. War is confusion. War is detached horror. I mention this only to point out that those Americans, who grappled with man's worst, did so to preserve man's best.
As we approach yet another Memorial Day, it hardly seems enough to remember these soldiers in cliques of gallantry. It is not appropriate to dress up in historical garb and fondly re-enact the bloodiest chapters of our history - as to Civil War and world war enthusiasts. It is not enough to reduce the service of our patriots to an excuse for a really big sale - as do retailers. It is not enough to dilute this holiday with ostentatious displays of consumerism and pageantry.
After all, the importance of celebrating Memorial Day is not to celebrate per say, but to confirm the significance of lost lives.
By coming together in a large communal ritual, we reinforce the notion that these soldiers, that these people, have actually died. And that they died to strengthen our individual freedoms. After the fighting in their various wars, some of our soldiers returned home with tattered minds and spirits, only to be held in lower regard than the enemy they had struggled to defeat. Some were still relegated to the back of the bus because of the color of their skin; others never lived long enough to see the civil rights legislation of the '60s. Yet they fought for an idea so powerful that it moved many of them to die for their country. We cannot forget that what is best about this country rests on their shoulders.
With this in mind, do something different this weekend. Visit cemeteries and place flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes. Visit memorials and fly U.S. Flags at half-staff until noon and pledge to aid the disabled veterans, widows, widowers and orphans of those that died in conflicts and wars.
