Speak Your Piece: Reflections on Memorial Day, the day after

Another Memorial Day has come and gone. The solemn meaning of the day is often diluted by the “holiday” aspect and the greeting, “Happy Memorial Day.” 

Although there are national and local dedications that encompass the true meaning of Memorial Day, there also are the door-busting retail sales, celebrations, and cookouts, as well as the “re-opening” of the Jersey Shore. Even the unofficial start of summer is proclaimed on Memorial Day weekend! I’m sorry I’m grumbling….

In Bucks County and elsewhere, Monday was marked with ceremonies and patriotic parades in small towns  paying tribute to the fallen. Hopefully, this continues and grows as new generations understand the real meaning of Memorial Day: Service, sacrifice, solemnities.  

Each year, at Arlington National Cemetery, the president places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a solemn tribute to the nameless who bought our freedoms with their lives.  

Indeed, thousands died on the “altar of freedom,” as Abraham Lincoln said in a consoling letter to a mother whose five sons were lost in the Civil War. 

Memorial Day is a federal holiday set aside for the men and women who willingly and honorably served our country, and that includes all the veterans who passed on at an older age, like my brothers, Jim and Joe, and so many others I knew. We should include all who served in our prayers and acknowledge their lives, too. 

Dying in battle is not a sacrifice, according to the legendary General George S. Patton, whose remarks rang out in 1941 at an Armistice Day ceremony honoring the war dead — and linger today.

 “I consider it no sacrifice to die for my country,” Patton said. “In my mind, we came here today to thank God that men like these have lived, rather than regret that they have died.”

Memorial Day is most meaningful when we honor service and sacrifice with solemnities.   

Pat Wandling hosts Speak Your Piece from which this commentary is adapted, weekdays at noon on WBCB 1490.