Why we have Monday off from work

[vaskidmark]

Stolen from a blogger who says it better than I can:

Perhaps Memorial Day seems like a time to put flags on old headstones and remember our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Perhaps it seems to be just a day off from work to mark the start of summer. It’s not. It’s about remembering the sacrifice made by very young men to preserve our country. Day by day, year after year, we send young men into harm’s way and not all of them come back.

We cannot repay their service, we cannot do or say anything to ease the loss to their families, all we can do is remember.

Bring a hanky.


http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laur...the-fallen.htm

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.


For the British who inspired the poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tCg596QSc ("The Last Post")

Please watch all 5 minutes of it. One poppy petal for every fallen British soldier.
Years ago I had the privilege of watching a Rememberance Day ceremony much like the one depicted. At the end the servicemen took off their hats and collected every single poppy petal, then placed their hats on the altar.

For our war dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFubhsfwp_c ("Echo Taps")

stay safe.

[Scout26]

Hamm American Military Cemetery, Luxembourg.  One of 25 American military cemeteries, which are located in 16 foreign countries. I've had the privilege of twice participating in Memorial Day Services there.

[Angel Eyes]

Notwithstanding the typos, this is worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omd9_FJnerY

[Ron]

In Rome of old, it is said, there once nearly befell a great catastrophe. A great chasm opened up in the Forum and grew ever wider day by day, threatening to engulf the entire city. The Romans tried to fill up the pit with earth, but this did not even slow its expansion. In despair they consulted an oracle, who said that the Romans must cast into the pit that which made their city great, and so they gathered up gold and silver, swords and armor, horses and oxen, anything and everything they could think of. Still the chasm grew.

As was so often the case with oracles, the true meaning was obscure, but one man, Marcus Curtius by name, perceived it. When the Romans were preparing to abandon the city, Curtius armed himself for battle and put on all his decorations for valor. He mounted his old warhorse one last time and with a great cry rode forth into the pit. Behind him the chasm closed up, and the city was saved. Only then did the people of Roman understand the oracle.

For it was not her wealth nor her swords nor her beasts nor anything else that made Rome great but her men, ready and willing to die for the state.

[RocketMan]

For it was not her wealth nor her swords nor her beasts nor anything else that made Rome great but her men, ready and willing to die for the state.

The oracle had me right up to the very last part.  Then we parted ways.
But I do understand the point you're trying to make.

[Hawkmoon]

One of my all-time pet peeves is those who confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day, and use Memorial Day as a reason to thank living veterans and currently-serving soldiers.

The true meaning of the day is totally lost on the current generation, in large measure because a couple of preceding generations didn't care enough to preserve the reason for the day. And they certainly don't teach it in school these days.