Are we losing the meaning of Memorial Day? It seems so.
I believe we started to lose the meaning in the 1970s when Congress declared that Memorial Day would no longer be observed on a specific day – May 30 – but rather on the last Monday in May. That ensured a three-day weekend, which is now considered the unofficial beginning of summer.
Of course that spawned a bombardment of promotions for outdoor furniture, barbeque equipment, weight loss programs and cars sales which continue to this day.
Now I enjoy a three-day weekend as much as the next person, but we should remember why Memorial Day was created.
Memorial Day is about memory.
Author, humanist and Nobel Peace Prize Lauriat Ellie Weisel once said, “without memory there is no culture, no civilization, no society, no future.”
Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn day of remembrance for those who served in our armed forces and never came home (as opposed to Veterans Day which is meant to honor all those who served).
Check out the various promotions for Memorial weekend activities – better described as parties – all across the state but especially at the shore. These promotions billboard music festivals, motor cross races, rave dance parties, pub crawls, picnics and other vacation-oriented events.
I suppose one could debate whether this is disrespectful of the intent of the day, but there is no denying it is tone deaf to the spirit of the day.
I am not looking to put a damper on the summer kickoff, but we should remember that there are many among us who lost comrades or family members on battlefields, and they are probably not inclined to find the day a cause for an “epic” party.
I should note that there are dozens of parades and memorial services planned and advertised across New Jersey appropriate to the meaning of Memorial Day but attendance at these events seems to shrink every year.
It is estimated that, since the flareup at Lexington and Concord which ignited the American Revolution in 1775, about 1,324,000 Americans have died in military service around the world.
So, as the sun rises on Memorial Day morning, let us remember the familiar and the forlorn places where the sacrifices of Americans who gave the last full measure of devotion still echo – the stark hills of Korea, the virulent jungles of Vietnam, the South Pacific Islands, Normandy Beach and western Europe, and on our own continent, Mexico, Canada and the 19 states where the Civil War was fought.
Let is also remember that the sacrifices made by these Americans helped forge a nation built on ideals of personal liberty, self-determination and charity for all.
Creating a nation based on these cornerstones makes our national experience unprecedented in world history – and only those with a severe ignorance of this history or with a conscious desire to be obtuse – would not recognize this.
We all realize that we have not always lived up to these ideals and in some cases, we have gone egregiously against them, but we owe it to the 1,324,000 Americans to remember the ultimate sacrifice they made and why they made it.
And, in their honor, we should strive each day to make our nation what Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln called the “last best hope on Earth.”
