Out-of-sight, Our-of-mind, Memorial Day?

Humans have a very short attention span in life. It generally lasts with the visual, “Out of sight out of mind.” (Thomas A. Kempis) For many of us once something is out of sight and out of mind we do not miss it until a stimulus comes along. Well that day of an annual stimuli is fast approaching. For many of us it is called Memorial Day. When I was younger, I use to think that it was a day for remembering our dead. It was originally called Decoration Day, a southern tradition that was started by the ladies of the south gathering together to decorate the graves of the dead soldiers of their long gone confederacy. Taken note by General John A Logan in 1868, he made it official under General Order Number 11 to where flowers were placed on all military graves, Union and Confederate. Toward the turn of the century it took hold and the rest is history. The interesting thing about all of this is we remember our dead service men and women on Memorial Day and our living service men and women on Veterans Day but is that sufficient. I choose not to celebrate either. Do not go clicking off this article before reading it through altogether. Do not take it upon yourselves to judge me yet. Let me tell you why I choose not to celebrate either. We shouldn’t be forced to say thank you or remember what our defense service person has done for us through a national holiday. It should not be an out-of-sight, out-of-mind experience. The celebration or the nationalism is no longer taught in schools the way it should be. The national pride of being an American is no longer existent in most cases. Think about it. On Memorial Day, most everyone takes off and goes to the lake, a park, or the beach. Some just stay at home and do yard work, sleep, and barbeque. But how many people actually take the time to attend one of the Memorial Services that is put on by collective cities, VFW posts, or some other service oriented group? Not many. How many people take the time to purchase a flag and actually go to cemetery and put it on a grave of a soldier? Not many. Our children are not taught the actual purpose or the meaning of something real. I recently took a poll and 2 out of 15 middle school teenagers and asked if they knew the purpose of Memorial Day. They didn’t. Of these 15 young people, I watched them very carefully; they did not know the Texas Pledge of Allegiance or the US Pledge of Allegiance for that fact. They stood during morning announcements and mumbled. These were not illegal aliens but full fledge US Citizens and they all knew English. When we think about remembering our dead, we should not only remember the good they had done for our country but the actual history behind their service, the purpose regardless whether we believe it right or wrong. For example, I was not a believer in the Vietnam War when I was fast approaching my teenage years. Yet, I supported the soldiers. I will never believe in the wars or conflicts in which our country has been a part of or is a part of since then, but I support our soldiers. Do not think I am contradictory by any means. I support our soldiers because they have done the job they have been hired to do. They have performed to the best of their ability in most cases. But most of all they have attempted to retain some human qualities about themselves in the face of killing or being killed. They have returned to a country and…..just that and…..are attempting to regain what was lost through time. But what was lost can never be retrieved. Those are the soldiers that come to our aid in a national disaster such as a hurricane or tornado. Those are the soldiers that left their spouses, their children, their family and their friends when called to go far from home and fight for freedoms that many us think we have but in actuality they are fighting for something or some obscure idea of money and power between national entities. The soldiers and the average person can’t even begin to understand this concept. It is sad. Those are the reasons I choose not celebrate Memorial Day or Veterans Day. I want to remember what my father did and why he remained my father until I was 32 years old. He was lucky. He was a veteran of the Korean War. His detachment was scheduled and went overseas without him. Why did he live and the others in his detachment die? He was sent to the hospital for an unknown rash during deployment and stayed there for weeks and then discharged honorably. He was highly allergic to wool and in those days the uniforms had a wool material content to them. I can remember (in later years) he tried on a wool suit, he broke out like crazy on his chest and arms. I choose to celebrate Veterans alive or deceased every day I am living. I walk up to the living soldier, a stranger to me, and shake their hand and say thank you – may God bless you for being my defender. I have taken many a flag and placed it on the grave of an unknown soldier to me. If we stop and take the time to remember the things we do and why we do them, then they wouldn’t be out-of-sight, out-of mind. Take the opportunity to honor that foot soldier, the Native American Indian, that Texas Hispanic, that Japanese American, that Chinese American, etc. Many of their ancestors fought for our freedoms as well. Being an American service person means so much more than just being a soldier. It could be that civil patrol man, who is dead now, that spotted the German U Boat off the shores in Mobile Bay. Or one of my grandmothers, who was a look out during the Civil War. The blood of our freedoms in America has no race, color, sex, sexual orientation, rhyme or reason regardless of what our history is. SUVCW and David Merchant. Origins of Memorial Day. 4th Apr. 2009. Web http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html 24th May 2012,