Today is Memorial Day. This American holiday, first celebrated in 1865, was begun so that communities could commemorate their own fallen, amongst the hundreds of thousands of young Americans who gave their lives during our bloodiest war. Over time those local memorial services at the end of May grew into a great national tradition.
After over a hundred years of community memorials, the US congress finally acted. In 1967 they federalized the holiday, and one year later it legislated the now familiar ‘last Monday in May’ calendar placement. By the early seventies, all US states recognized the federal holiday.
Somewhere on the order of one million American soldiers have died in the nearly two and a half centuries of our national history. These men and women, define diversity. Immigrants from all four corners of the globe have served and died in our armed forces. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, have all sacrificed their members, Active, Reserve, National Guard and Militia. Christian, Jew, Atheist, Buddhist, and Muslim; Gay and Straight; Democrat, Republican, Whig and Socialist; liberal, conservative, moderate. There have been restrictions on military service over the years, but our war dead represent every part of our great national constituency.
Among those who have fallen recently are many that I called comrade, friend, or brother. Not blood brothers, but “Band of Brothers;” Chris, Segun, Kevin, Casey, Wil, are a few of the names that I can’t summon to mind without a lingering sadness. This is the burden of service in our current military. Wherever one’s politics lie, these men and four thousand other Americans who have recently made the ultimate sacrifice deserve our respect and a moment of our time. They deserve a day.
Recently, some factions, however, have shown a desire to dismantle Memorial Day. In the middle of a war, however unpopular, what does it say about us that we are unwilling to honor those who defended us with their lives?
In Wake County, North Carolina, where I currently live, the School Board has classes running today. This is part of a year round classroom initiative. I understand the need to “think outside the box” to effect better education at cost. But when schools are closed the day before Thanksgiving, but not on Memorial Day, there is an indication that we as a society have lost our way.
This morning, as I began to research some statistics for this article, I turned to Google, of course. I was immediately dismayed when I saw that the Google banner was just their generic icon. I may not have noticed, but only two days ago their banner was reworked in an impressionist style for the entire day. They were “celebrating” the birthday of Mary Cassat, a 19th century American Artist. I have noticed similar themes on Google for Charles Darwin, Earth Day and even Dr. Seuss.
Apparently celebrating Memorial Day, even in America, does not comply with Google’s corporate image, or approximate the importance of clever children’s literature.. Google, a company, based in California, owned and staffed in America, would rather pursue a globalist agenda, than acknowledge the true strength of the nation that allowed it to dominate its market.
I don’t know how many Wake County parents pulled their children from class today. I know that many intended to. I don’t have children yet. I do know that there is a flag flying in my yard. I will stop by my local veteran’s memorial today. I will give a few moments in honor of my fallen brothers; and to the million more who have given me my freedom. And from now on I will be searching the internet with a search engine that recognizes American Holidays.
No comments:
Post a Comment