ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605290025
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: HOLIDAY
IT WOULD be wrong to glamorize war, but wrong also to neglect to remember those who have died in wars, or to fail to acknowledge the debt a nation owes to those who forfeited their lives in pursuit of its preservation, freedoms and interests.
Each year, politicians and veterans and some of those who remember these fallen warriors gather on Memorial Day to pay a little on a debt that will never be paid in full. Unlived lives cannot be restored; acknowledging the sacrifice of those lives and expressing the nation's gratitude are altogether appropriate.
So, just as is occurring in almost every locality in the region and across the country today, Americans for more than 100 years have gathered in crowds or in small groups on this holiday to assemble honor guards, give and hear speeches, sing songs and salute the flag that symbolizes the ideals of a nation for which many have died.
They have gathered to remember.
This proud, melancholy tradition has its roots in the darkest time in the nation's history, the Civil War. Depending on how one chooses to mark its beginning, the first Memorial Day was either in 1866 or 1868. Columbus, Miss., claims to have originated the idea in 1866, when it honored both Union and Confederate dead. (Waterloo, N.Y., observed a similar day of remembrance that same year.)
But Memorial Day was established as a national holiday in 1868, by general order of the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, to commemorate soldiers killed in the American Civil War. Only later was it extended to honor all U.S. war dead.
Unfortunately, considerable numbers of dead have been added to the rolls since then, from World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and numerous police actions and peacekeeping missions around the world.
In this year, when internal discord and division seem to threaten the nation's outlook at least as much as any enemy abroad, it may be helpful to the American psyche to reflect more deeply than usual on a holiday born out of the carnage of the Civil War. This sort of remembrance does not celebrate; rather, it should deepen our commitment to avoid the recourse to violence and war that cut short lives and leave holes in families.
Schools in the Roanoke Valley are in session this Memorial Day, the holiday a casualty of the exceptional number of snow days over the winter. So for most students, there is no swimming, there are no burgers and dogs on the backyard grill. Today is no preview of the lazy days of summer vacation just ahead. It's just another school day.
That may be good, for a change. Schools have an opportunity today to call children's attention to the purpose of Memorial Day, something sometimes lost in the pleasant activities of a family holiday.
It is important for every generation of Americans to know and to remember both the bravery of the men and women who died for their country, and the failures of the nations that called on them to do so.
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