How Will You Honor Memorial Day?

I sadly never gave much thought to Memorial day growing up.  For most of my lifetime, it was a holiday for kids from school and for those that worked outside the home; a time for picnics and bar-b-ques; the unofficial start of summer.  In recent years, I have realized how neglectful I and many others are in regards to the true meaning of the day. 

It wasn’t until about 10 years ago, when we were living in Leavenworth, Kansas and we had kids in girl and boy scouts that I began to understand what the proper recognition of the day was.  In Leavenworth, the scouts visited the military cemetery in town early on Memorial Day morning and placed a flag on each and every grave site.  You couldn’t help but grasp the breadth of sacrifice and honor that was owed while walking among the thousands and thousands of grave sites.  What a sight it was when all the flags had been placed!  Just today, after receiving an email reminding me to keep the Memorial Day spirit alive, I decided to do a little research on how the day started and what the proper way of honoring it should be.  I came across a website that not only explained the history behind the day, but also included commentary on the sad turn of events that has transpired over the years, especially since our government officials, in all their usual brilliance of mind, changed the date from May 30^thto the last Monday in May so government employees could have a 3 day weekend.  In 1989, Senator Inouye introduced a bill to move the actual day back to May 30^th.  Every congress, he reintroduces the bill.  It gets read and then referred to the Committee on the Judiciary when it lingers with no action. While there are many important battles we have to fight today just to save our great nation from sinking fully into socialism, I believe that if we forget to honor our brave men and women that have sacrificed for the protection and freedoms of our country that we claim to hold so dear, then we probably don’t deserve the great blessings of having this country.
 We are fortunate in 2011 that the Memorial Day holiday falls on May 30^th.  I encourage you to first, honor the day in a manner that recognizes the true intent of the day, and second,  consider contacting your representatives in government to see if we can get them to do something about restoring the dignity to Memorial Day and forever keep it as a day of remembrance to humbly honor those that fought so we didn’t have to.

Visit this link for more information on the history and efforts to restore Memorial Day to its rightful honor.