Every seven years I have the privilege of celebrating my birthday with the entire United States. I was born on May 31 prior to the National Holiday Act of 1971 which ensures a three day weekend for federal holidays like Memorial Day, now celebrated on the last Monday in May. On this post 9/11 seventh year celebration I’m reminded of a number of sobering truths from which this holiday was born – truths that make Memorial Day one of the most hallowed days of the year.
Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. It was first observed on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery – just four and one half years after Abraham Lincoln gave (what he thought “the world would little note nor long remember”) his Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln spent his entire presidency managing a civil war that would eventually bring together a United States, a “nation under God … a new birth of freedom – and [a] government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people” that would not “perish from the earth.”
Less than a month after Lincoln was sworn into office the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War began. Subsequent battles include Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. There was Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Cold Harbor, and the March to the Sea. Finally on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army and the war was over.
On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Civil War ended, The Stars and Stripes was ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. Later that evening President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The now famous address he delivered less than two years before would come to include his own life and death among those he immortalized as “brave men who struggled,” the “honored dead” from which “we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” His desire was to “resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
After World War I the holiday was changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. Americans from World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all join ranks with the brave men and women who gave their all for the “self-evident truths” that the Founders, Lincoln, and many others believe to be worth living and dying for; “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The untold number of service men and women who died throughout the years trying to secure and sustain our freedom is symbolized by the “Unknown Soldier” whose tomb in Arlington National Cemetery receives a wreath every Memorial Day and officially marks the remembrance of all who “shall not have died in vain.” To their service we salute, to their memories we cling, to their sacrifice we laud, and to their spirit we ascribe the highest earthly reverence.
Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. It was first observed on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery – just four and one half years after Abraham Lincoln gave (what he thought “the world would little note nor long remember”) his Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln spent his entire presidency managing a civil war that would eventually bring together a United States, a “nation under God … a new birth of freedom – and [a] government of the people, by the people, [and] for the people” that would not “perish from the earth.”
Less than a month after Lincoln was sworn into office the Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War began. Subsequent battles include Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. There was Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Cold Harbor, and the March to the Sea. Finally on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army and the war was over.
On April 14, 1865, just five days after the Civil War ended, The Stars and Stripes was ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. Later that evening President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The now famous address he delivered less than two years before would come to include his own life and death among those he immortalized as “brave men who struggled,” the “honored dead” from which “we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.” His desire was to “resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
After World War I the holiday was changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. Americans from World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all join ranks with the brave men and women who gave their all for the “self-evident truths” that the Founders, Lincoln, and many others believe to be worth living and dying for; “That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The untold number of service men and women who died throughout the years trying to secure and sustain our freedom is symbolized by the “Unknown Soldier” whose tomb in Arlington National Cemetery receives a wreath every Memorial Day and officially marks the remembrance of all who “shall not have died in vain.” To their service we salute, to their memories we cling, to their sacrifice we laud, and to their spirit we ascribe the highest earthly reverence.
No comments:
Post a Comment