Janet's Creative Cottage

What Memorial Day Means And What You Can Do

Does it mean just a day off? The beginning of summer? Picnics and Parades on tv? The opening of public swimming pools? Sad,but true that most Americans don't know much about Memorial Day's purpose or history. And it's a shame because it removes an important bond with those brave men, and women, who have given their lives in our Nation's service.

Confederate Decoration Day, for example, is still celebrated each June 3rd in Tennessee. After World War I, the national Decoration Day became Memorial Day. The commemoration was expanded to include those who died in all U.S. wars.This made the observance more acceptable in the South. Most states, in accordance with federal law, officially celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. In 1968, Congress debated the wisdom of moving several public holidays to Monday.

Writer Bill Kaufmann in The American Enterprise Online quotes a Tennessee congressman at the time as saying, "If we do this, 10 years from now our schoolchildren will not know what February 22 means. They will not know or care when George Washington was born. They will know that in the middle of February they will have a three-day weekend for some reason. This will come."It has. And similarly Memorial Day, like other celebrations uprooted from their fixed dates, has lost much of its important meaning for many of us fortunate enough to live in this blessed land.

In honor of Memorial Day you can......

You can visit cemeteries and place flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
You can visit memorials.
You can fly the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.
You can fly the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).
You can participate in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.
You can renew a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.

" GOD BLESS AMERICA"