A Look at Memorial Day
Memorial Day as we know it now does not hold the meaning it was originally meant to have. Thoughts of
Memorial Day for most of us now include family cookouts, opening swimming pools for the summer season, picnics,
and even family vacations.
Like other holidays, merchants see this as a time to increase their sales. They advertise sales
revolving around the holiday for everything from camping gear to summer clothing. While most people buy wreaths of fresh
cut or plastic flowers to place on the graves of loved ones, it is often because they are in the department stores to
take advantage of these sales that have nothing to do with the occasion.
Volunteer veterans often set up tables outside of food markets and department stores to sell little
red paper flowers that resemble a Poppy to raise funds for projects the government does not fund sufficiently. Most of
this has little to do with why Memorial Day became a holiday in the first place: to honor the brave men (and later women)
who served this country in battle.
If you ask most people today about the "Battle of the Bulge," they would probably tell you it is
a battle with weight, a constant struggle to keep fat from landing on your hips and thighs with each piece of cake that we
eat. Very few people, except for veterans, would be able to tell you it was a battle that took place on December 16, 1944.
It was one of the largest battles in the history of World War II and it took forty days of fighting before the battle ended.
How do I know this? I listened to my father each year on Memorial Day when he went into a serious
and reflective mood, reliving his own days of battle during W.W.II. Watching the expressions on his face change as he relived
those days left lasing impressions on my own mind.
I know that he had some pleasant memories of Hawaii and his travels across the equator but he had
far more painful memories as he thought about the lives lost, the environment, the way his life was forever changed when he
came home after the war. He talked about the colors of the explosions as ships were hit in Pearl Harbor and in the next breath,
how beautiful the moonlight shone on the water as he walked along the beaches in Hawaii. He recalled seeing men ablaze and
a sky filling with black smoke. He seldom talked about the people who were there closest to him and on the rare occasions
that he did, he could not stop the tears that formed in his eyes.
Memories are an important part of who we are and what we can accomplish. He always seemed to remember
the things he wanted to forget and felt sorry that he couldn't remember all of the names of those who fell around him. He
felt guilty for coming home in one piece to enjoy a family and a nice home while many friends and brothers in the battle never
made it home at all.
Remembering the people who fought long and hard to preserve our freedom is a small token of respect
that we should never deny them. The ultimate sacrifices that a veteran has made should be remembered with the utmost dignity.
Memorial Day is a celebration but it is more than waving flags and listening to speeches. It is a day to honor those who gave
us the privilege of being able to have cookouts, vacations, freedoms of all types. Memorial Day should touch the hearts of
every American in this country.
Remember your loved ones who are no longer with us this year but above all, remember the men and
women who have fought to make the world a safer place with more freedom than some of us have ever earned. Whether you have
veterans in your family or not, they should not be forgotten.
You know, even though the veterans we will be remembering can not be with us physically, they will
live on in our hearts and I think they would want us to celebrate with family get togethers and laughter. They did not give
their lives for us to live in grief and sadness, they gave their lives so that parents could play with their children, people
could visit around the world and there would be a chance that someday we could all live in peace and harmony.
©Dianna Doles Petry
