Memorial Day 2008

Memorial Day

Memorial Day formerly occurred on May 30, and some, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), advocate returning to this fixed date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address, "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day." Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, has repeatedly introduced measures to return Memorial Day to its traditional day since 1987.

Men, women, even children (for there were those who joined disguising their true age) fought and died in conflicts on behalf of this nation.

No, that's not exactly true.

They fought and died for the ideals upon which this nation was founded.



Will we trivialize their ultimate sacrifice with cowardice against ... not guns, not bombers, not tanks, not soldiers ... against nothing but some signatures on papers which erase the very ideals others bravely fought to uphold?

Will we exchange Give me liberty or give me death! for Give me comfort or I'll cry like a baby?

It's become a joke among those who proclaim their intelligence: Bedford Falls.



Yet those unsophisticated people of limited education and a belief in God -- and a belief in this nation's ideals -- cleansed the world of a monstrous evil never before faced by anyone in history.

Had they known that their sacrifice would lead to this:



That is to say, to us today, would they have still given their all?

I believe they would have.

For they were a people who believed in the good. They were fighting first for their time, for the ideals they held dear and had inherited from others; secondly so that we could have a future.

What we did -- and what we still do -- with that future is in our hands.



Will it be Pottersville and that?

They saved the world and gave it to us.



They never said anything would be easy.

Nothing ever is.