Today is Memorial Day 2012.
So, put your memory to work.
Remember these:
The young people who graduated two or five or fifty years ago, and enlisted instead of enrolled.
The memorial parades for the young men and women in your community.
The crack of the 21 gun salute honoring those who served.
When I was young, Memorial Day was spent honoring all our dead. Remembering them, putting flowers on graves that went unvisited all year round. I was pretty old (for a kid) before I knew that the day was focused on the military.
That didn't seem fair, at first. The whole memorial day for remembering everyone seemed a lot more fair, why pay special attention to the warmongers? Can you tell I was a child in the 60s?
Memorial Day was created for those who served. If it honors those who served reluctantly as equals with those who served willingly, that's fine. Those who served reluctantly had a better idea of what the cost could be, what the cost would be. But guess what? They went anyway.
That's no small thing.
All our veterans deserve equal honor. They all deserve to be remembered.
Today, take time to remember. You are here because they were there. Wherever your 'here' and their 'there' are/were.
So, put your memory to work.
Remember these:
The young people who graduated two or five or fifty years ago, and enlisted instead of enrolled.
The memorial parades for the young men and women in your community.
The crack of the 21 gun salute honoring those who served.
When I was young, Memorial Day was spent honoring all our dead. Remembering them, putting flowers on graves that went unvisited all year round. I was pretty old (for a kid) before I knew that the day was focused on the military.
That didn't seem fair, at first. The whole memorial day for remembering everyone seemed a lot more fair, why pay special attention to the warmongers? Can you tell I was a child in the 60s?
Memorial Day was created for those who served. If it honors those who served reluctantly as equals with those who served willingly, that's fine. Those who served reluctantly had a better idea of what the cost could be, what the cost would be. But guess what? They went anyway.
That's no small thing.
All our veterans deserve equal honor. They all deserve to be remembered.
Today, take time to remember. You are here because they were there. Wherever your 'here' and their 'there' are/were.
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