Today is Memorial Day, the day we set aside to honor those who give of themselves. Those that gave their lives to provide freedom so that my family and I and everyone in the US could have religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to do pretty much what we want within the law.
I am copying the History of Memorial Day, taken from the VA website
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an
organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) —
established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves
of
the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that
Decoration Day
should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was
chosen because
flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
The first
large observance
was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across
the Potomac River from
Washington, D.C.
The ceremonies centered around
the mourning-draped veranda
of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen.
Robert E. Lee. Various
Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses
S. Grant, presided over
the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan
Home and members of the GAR made their way
through the cemetery, strewing
flowers on both Union and Confederate graves,
reciting prayers and singing
hymns.
Local Observances Claim To Be First
Local springtime tributes to the
Civil War dead already had been held in
various places. One of the first
occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25,
1866, when a group of women visited a
cemetery to decorate the graves of
Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle
at Shiloh. Nearby were the
graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were
the enemy. Disturbed
at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of
their flowers on
those graves, as well.
Today, cities in the North and the
South claim to
be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and
Columbus, Ga.,
claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of
Boalsburg, Pa.,
claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a
Carbondale, Ill.,
cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day
ceremony took
place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of
Gen.
Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the
origin
of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead
were
buried.
Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President
Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day.
There,
a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in
the Civil
War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff.
Supporters of
Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were
either informal,
not community-wide or one-time events.
By the end of the
19th century,
Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout
the nation. State
legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and
the Army and Navy
adopted regulations for proper observance at their
facilities.
It was not
until after World War I, however, that the day was
expanded to honor those who
have died in all American wars. In 1971,
Memorial Day was declared a national
holiday by an act of Congress, though
it is still often called Decoration Day.
It was then also placed on the last
Monday in May, as were some other federal
holidays.
Some States Have
Confederate Observances Many Southern states also
have their own days for
honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates
Confederate Memorial
Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth
Monday of April, and
Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on
May 10,
Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration
Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls
the
last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.
Gen. Logan’s order for
his posts
to decorate graves in 1868 “with the choicest flowers of
springtime” urged: “We
should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ...
Let pleasant paths invite
the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond
mourners. Let no neglect, no
ravages of time, testify to the present or to
the coming generations that we
have forgotten as a people the cost of a free
and undivided republic.”
The
crowd attending the first Memorial Day
ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery
was approximately the same size as
those that attend today’s observance, about
5,000 people. Then, as now,
small American flags were placed on each grave — a
tradition followed at
many national cemeteries today. In recent years, the
custom has grown in
many families to decorate the graves of all departed loved
ones.
The
origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be
found in
antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen
heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied
today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation’s wars: “Not
only
are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells
also an
unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of
men.”
To
ensure the sacrifices of America ’s fallen heroes are never
forgotten, in
December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president
signed into law “The
National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579,
creating the White House
Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance.
The commission’s charter is to
“encourage the people of the United States to
give something back to their
country, which provides them so much freedom
and opportunity” by encouraging and
coordinating commemorations in the
United States of Memorial Day and the
National Moment of Remembrance.
The
National Moment of Remembrance encourages
all Americans to pause wherever
they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day
for a minute of silence to
remember and honor those who have died in service to
the nation. As Moment
of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: “It’s a
way we can all help
put the memorial back in Memorial Day.”
Today I strongly encourage all of you to find a way to memorialize those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives so that we may have freedom.
God Bless the USA and our troops
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