Memorial Day has always held a place in my heart, that reflects both
great pride and great pain. When, I was
a child it was called Decoration Day and, in the days, immediately preceding
Decoration Day my mother, and I would walk around my hometown house to house asking
for donations and passing out paper poppies for the Veterans of Foreign
Wars. There was a parade, which brought
out all the people in town, and in which my Uncles and others marched
resplendent in the uniforms they had worn in WW II and Korea. There was a program, following the parade, at
the towns war monument to honor the men who had gone off from our small town to
America’s Wars, replete with pomp and ceremony, the reading of names, the
placement of flags, and ending in a crescendo of rifle fire followed by the
sound of Taps. The whole experience was
thrilling and to a younger me, it was a celebration that was the prelude to
summer and the end of the school year.
It was just beyond my grasp to truly understand its meaning and
importance to the men who stood so solemnly at attention and sometimes shed a
tear in remembrance.
As the years passed and I became more aware of the world, what was now
called Memorial Day became a different experience. I saw boys, I knew go off to war in Vietnam; and
some of them were lost in that distant land.
Memorial Day took on a deeper and more painful meaning as, I heard their
names called out in the service of remembrance at the war monument and the
thunder of the guns followed by Taps became more poignant. I came to really understand the sacrifice of
each American soldier, now I could feel both pride and sadness in the sound of
Taps, and I understood the need to remember and honor them all.
Around us lie the mortal remain of more than 2200 American soldiers. Yes, American soldiers. I will not refer to them by the color of
their uniform or the side they fought for.
To do so is irrelevant and does not do justice to the fact that most
fought not for causes or issues, but rather as all soldiers do; they fought, in
the end, for the man on their left and they fought for the man on their right,
their brothers in arms, tent mates, and friends. In the aftermath of war and the death, pain,
and destruction that it causes those who have lost their lives are mourned
first by their loved ones and friends, and later by those many descendants,
whose lives are inherently and invariably connected to them. As time has passed and memory faded, we are
left with only the words, which are inscribed on the headstones that surround
us as a reminder that they ever existed in this mortal realm. Such is the reality of time, memory, and the
human condition, we can become disconnected from the past unless we make a
conscious effort to inculcate the act of remembrance through ritual and
ceremony. In one of my favorite movies
the leading character is given a watch by the men he has led for many
years. Inside the watch are the words
“Lest we Forget” The character is overcome by the gift and clutches it close as
he fights to hold back a tear. So, it
must be for us in today’s ceremony and in the all the ceremonies that will come
in the future to pledge ourselves to live by the motto “Lest we Forget” and
dedicate ourselves to the cause of remembrance,
make the emotional connection with the past, and feel our hearts stirred
or shed a tear
I have often walked in this section of the cemetery at all sorts of
hours and sought to glean some insight to the common thread, which exists
between the soldiers from both sides of that terrible conflict who are buried
in this sacred plot of earth
[1].
I have contemplated the conversations that
might occur between former enemies as they seek solace in this bivouac of the
dead in the eerie stillness of the darkest hours of the night.
I have stood here in early morning light,
noon day sun, and in the darkness of the evening wondering what the spirits of
these men might be thinking about this country and its people.
Do they worry that we will not honor the commitment
made to them years ago to never forget them?
Do they wonder why so few come to pay respects?
Do they often feel forgotten?
In the musings of my mind, I suspect that if
they could their speak to us the
answer
to all these questions would be YES and that is why we must do everything
possible to make things right.
In our country today, we find our commitment to remember some American
soldiers of the past called into question and our motives for honoring them
subjected to scrutiny. There are those
who would say we should forget these men and move on, but I would say to them a
resounding NO! If my sixty-seven years
of life have taught me nothing else, they have taught me that shared
experiences, such as this one we are involved in today, are the glue which
holds a culture, a people, a nation together.
Many of our citizens today see Memorial Day as, I did in my youth; a
celebration of summer with no emphasis on the true meaning of the moment. They have no ties to the past; they have no
connection to the fallen, they have lost the sense of respect that the joined
experience of remembrance and honoring the war dead in our society provided. As a result,
a destructive discord has arisen, which threatens the vary foundations of our
National Unity.
To disavow any American Soldier whose actions or service, i.e. Vietnam,
Civil War, Indian Wars or Mexican War, does not fit into our modern world viewpoint
is a disservice to all veterans. Instead
of honor will there be hate and retribution masked as moral correctness? I hope not, but there is an insensitivity and
an unwillingness to stop the use of presentism when looking at our history in
America today.
In my mind no American soldier should ever be discounted and discarded,
every life which was lost was a wound to our country, our communities, and
families. We should not accept or give
countenance to actions which disrespect the life of any American Soldier, for
if we do, we are disavowing the very essence of who we are and where we came
from. I can only pray that the citizens
of my country will perhaps grow as, I did with age and experience, and realize
the importance of honoring the men and women of the past who gave everything so
that we might have the life we do today, regardless of the historical context
in which they lived and died.
In conclusion please listen to the 3rd and 7th verses
of Francis Miles Finch’s poem “The Blue and the Grey”
From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe:
Under the sod and the dew
Waiting for judgement-day;
Under the roses the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Grey
No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our
dead!
Under the sod and the dew
Waiting for judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.
It is my hope that we can find it
in our hearts to practice love for all and to shed tears for all of America’s
lost sons and daughters. It is also my
hope that we, Americans will follow the maxim “Lest we Forget” and restore the
true meaning of Memorial Day / Decoration Day in the hearts of all our
Citizens.
I wish to thank the ladies of the UDC for granting me this opportunity
to speak on this most special of days,
and I pray that as a people we never forget any American soldier who
shed his blood and may we as a nation find a pathway to reconciliation and
unity.
[1] If
necessary, point out the graves of Union Pvt. Bobbitt and Pvt. Ferguson in the Confederate section.
also point out that there are several USCT buried
in the Old City Cemetery.
