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SternSkipper -> Can we ask the Memorial Day Question ... (5/26/2012 2:04:36 PM)
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Can we ask the Memorial Day Question "How come Memorial Day, a national holiday honoring originally our civil war dead, and later expanded to include our fallen soldiers from all of this nation's ensuing conflicts, is so frequently co-opted for partisan political discussion?
A lot of people just love to attach all kinds of mystical meaning to the holiday, but really, while 'rights' and 'national pride' and even "freedom' are such colorful topics, this holiday isn't anymore about those than to give those left behind some additional solace and a reason for their loss (when it happens to be close enough in their temporal sense of 'loss'.
The original fallen honored were fighting for one primary reason, to preserve a crumbling union. The political 'attachments' had a big propaganda/political component to them.
But really this is about NOT FORGETTING our fallen soldiers who died serving their country. The very first was an effort to honor about 250 prisoners of war that were placed in unmarked graves and there was a concern these men would be forgotten, but it over time, became a wider event to honor all those who'd fallen. Did politicians show up and march? Yes, but they weren't participating at the time to campaign or grind political axes. And Scuri might even find it interesting that his own personal political hero,[image]http://www.insight-info.com/myadmin/photos/Jesse%20Jackson.jpg[/image]
... which he sometimes mentions with great reverence being Carolinian, probably had ancestors that were DIRECTLY responsible for the first Memorial Day.
Now, after the holiday was well established, and really mostly in the last century really, there came a great Whoring of the holiday into a pulpit for electioneering and even the furtherance of 'movements' and social agendas. All brought to 'relevance' by mystical arguments that there MUST be a deeper meaning.
But it has never really and truly been about a lot more intrinsically than we owe it to those who've died in military service to their country and to ensure that at least symbolically, they are not forgotten.
Back when my father was very active in veteran's affairs, he and his peers were very careful to stress to politicians on election years that the Veterans in RI really wanted as a collective, to ask they avoid 'stumping' at parades and other events (that was back when the VFW actually pulled some weight in our society).
And today, I find myself thinking about these concepts in as much as I will be attending a Waterfront Festival in Newburyport this weekend and I had to kind of have 'the talk' about my beliefs concerning the holiday. I was relieved that he, having been of similar upbringing (his Dad was a figure in Veteran's Affairs), and that he agreed the speech he gives shall contain no politicking and that while he has to have a canvassing presence (given the petitioning deadlines approaching), we will have a uniform statement that canvassers at our two locations in the town, will respond to inquiries with a statement that "Out of deference to our nation's fallen soldiers, we will not answer policy questions. We have campaign materials we can send you via mail or email, if you like. Or you can go to www. ...".
And then thursday night, I got a call from my older brother, who probably takes a more resolute view of the holiday, and while he knows all kinds of politicians, having protected so many in his long career, reminded me that he has done the same thing for the past 18 years. Every year on the Friday night of the memorial day weekend, he hooks up with one of his high school buddies (so long as they own a motorcycle) and they meet in Newport, RI at a bar that's been around and pretty much a young people's gathering spot (college kids, softball teams, etc) and they have a few beers, get on their bikes and then ride through the night to Arlington Cemetery to leave a flag and a few flowers at the grave of our next door neighbor Donald. He was a kid basically who got taken out by a mortar in Vietnam while resting, eating a meal in between patrols. He says that he sees the numbers of people doing this from around the country seems to grow somewhat. He first got the idea when in the 70s he was still a DC cop and spoke to a small group of bikers who met up at the mall in front of the Wash monument. He ended up escorting them with another patrol car to the cemetery "because they just liked the gesture".
And that's what I really think is the most important thing about the holiday. Not the
I am curious how others feel about the use/misuse of the Memorial Day Holiday by either political people, or by just people who like to get on a soapbox, for whatever motivation. I mean is this way of looking at and observing this holiday even valid anymore?
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