On Memorial Day, a tradition dictates that the Stars and Striped are raised briskly against the wind to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the position of half-staff where it remains only till noon. The flag is then raised to full staff for the remainder of the day. The half-staff position remembers the more than one million women and men who gave their lives in service of their Nation. At noon, their memory is raised by the living who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise in their stead and continue the fight for liberty.
So many mothers and wives, husbands and fathers, extended family and friends do their duty every day to ensure their loved one is remembered. They carry on each day with pictures on mantels and mementos of a life not fully lived. They carry on understanding that their Soldier chose this life of service and thus they understood the potentiality of their death as a sacrifice for the sake of freedom. These men and women left behind, carry on their Soldier's message, raising-up their memory like an unfurled flag. We also honor the families of those lost, for you bear a burden that only you can comprehend. We are grateful for the support you gave your Soldier, so they could carry out the mission of protecting the rest of us.
When Gen. Lucian Truscott, commander of the U.S. Fifth Army, spoke at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy on Memorial Day in 1945, he turned his back on the audience, and spoke directly to the nearly 20,000 American soldiers buried there, apologizing to them for their deaths.
Many Americans on Memorial Day are trying to commemorate or remember something they have never personally known. It is easy to group Memorial Day in with other public rituals of appreciation for those who serve or served in uniform. But Memorial Day is supposed to be different. Myself, I did not lose close friends or comrades in combat. In this way, my struggle to find personal meaning in Memorial Day is the same as many other Americans: I work to make personal something I have only experienced vicariously through my son and nephew. I am left painfully aware of the inadequacy of my own experience to truly help me empathize with the pride, heartache, love, and guilt experienced by those who have been touched more personally by loss in these wars.
Portions of Ronald Reagan’s 1982 Memorial Day Speech:
We must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice. Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure, and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves… …As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will every have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice… …Reagan, known as "The Great Communicator," concluded his Memorial Day remarks with a challenge: "Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem – I can't claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don't know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask."
Have a thoughtful, safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.
Take care,
Mark