Today is Memorial Day and I thought it would be nice to do a post on the meaning of the day...
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868, by Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on May 30, 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
I know that my father, who is a Vietnam veteran, and my little brother go every Memorial Day and put flags on the graves of fallen soldiers in our local cemetery. I think that is such an awesome thing that they do together.
I think a lot of people use this 3 day weekend to BBQ with friends and are just happy to have Monday off. But if we really want to celebrate the meaning of the day maybe we should be celebrating the freedom that our soldiers fight for us to have everyday and celebrating the protection that they give us against countries that we are at war with....and giving thought to the men and women who have lost their lives in wars they didn't start.
As long as I can remember it seems like we have been at war with someone...and now since 2001 we have been fighting an on going war in Afghanistan and there does not seem to be any end in sight. We are losing men and women everyday. We are spending millions of dollars a day funding war, when we have millions of men women and children literally scrapping pennies together to try to make ends meet. It seems the longer the war goes on the worst things get for the economy.
I do not believe that War is the answer. It does not to seem have ever done any good, for anyone. I am not going to get into some big political speech because that is just not my thing....However I think that for things to get better for the American people we need to end the wars. So I will take today as a day to remember all the men and women who have given there lives for our country and to say a blessing for our country in the hopes that Peace will come to us in America and to all the people in other lands who suffer because of war.
