Decoration/Memorial Day—150 Years Old

Today is the 150th anniversary of Memorial Day or “Decoration Day” as my mother insisted on calling it.  I watched the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS last night.  It was an extremely moving presentation from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capital, hosted by Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan) and featuring heart-warming and heart-wrenching personal stories interwoven with some superb musical performances.  

Memorial (Decoration) Day was first commemorated at Arlington National Cemetery in 1868 by a proclamation given by General John A. Logan to honor those who died “in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”  It was called “Decoration Day”  because on that day 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of 20,000 soldiers buried in the cemetery.  From 1868 to 1970, Memorial Day was held on May 30.  Through the passing of the years, it became the day for honoring the dead of all of America’s wars.  In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May.

Memorial Day is a day to grieve, mourn, lament, recognize, salute, eulogize, and honor the fallen  (the military victims) of America’s wars. [I think we ought also to commemorate a Memorial Day for the civilian victims of war—whose numbers far exceed the number of military victims]. It is not a day to idolize, acclaim, glorify, commend, applaud, or give honor to war!  It is a day, however, that reminds me of Plato’s caustic words: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”  But, why must this be so?

As I listened to the Simon & Garfunkel song, “Like A Bridge Over Troubled Waters” being performed last night on PBS, I thought how the building of bridges might help prevent war and halt the continued spread of burial grounds across the world, including those of Arlington.  Then, it suddenly struck me, that the fallen we honor today were/are “like a bridge over troubled water” for “they were there to lay themselves down (like a bridge for us)….”Ooh I’ll be your bridge.”  They were our bridge and they are still our bridge being laid down over the troubled waters of Syria, Afghanistan, and wherever the waters of war churn, while we pay little attention until the next Memorial Day.  

We must learn to build bridges for peace over the troubled waters of our world before our young men and women have to cry “Ooh I’ll be your bridge.”   “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows,” said Martin Luther King, and we ought by now to  know this is true after 150 years of Decoration/Memorial Days!