When celebrating the long Memorial Day weekend at the beach, in the country, in your backyard for a BBQ, going shopping online or in the stores looking for sales or wherever and however - try not to forget the real reason for this holiday.
Memorial Day is a day to honor those in our military service who died honorably fighting in war. It's purpose is not to honor veterans (we have Veterans' Day for that) nor was it initially to honor those in the military who died while serving but not while defending (as in combat) our great nation - the United States of America. Times and the holiday have changed, though I think sadly, and honoring all those who died in our military service - not just those who perished honorably in combat - is what it has evolved to today. Hopefully the emphasis is still placed on remembering and honoring they who fell in combat for the rest of us.
We Shall Keep the Faith
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
More info on memorial Day at these links:
https://www.cem.va.gov/history/memdayorder.asp
http://www.usmemorialday.org/?page_id=2
https://www.military.com/memorial-day
All the best,
Glenn B
Memorial Day is a day to honor those in our military service who died honorably fighting in war. It's purpose is not to honor veterans (we have Veterans' Day for that) nor was it initially to honor those in the military who died while serving but not while defending (as in combat) our great nation - the United States of America. Times and the holiday have changed, though I think sadly, and honoring all those who died in our military service - not just those who perished honorably in combat - is what it has evolved to today. Hopefully the emphasis is still placed on remembering and honoring they who fell in combat for the rest of us.
We Shall Keep the Faith
by Moina Michael, November 1918
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
More info on memorial Day at these links:
https://www.cem.va.gov/history/memdayorder.asp
http://www.usmemorialday.org/?page_id=2
https://www.military.com/memorial-day
All the best,
Glenn B
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