Am I the only one… who believes Memorial Day should honor only our departed warriors?

Once again, Memorial Day is upon us. It’s a day that was set aside in 1868, specifically to honor fallen soldiers of the Civil War. The original celebration, known then as Decoration Day, took place at Arlington National Cemetery, with a crowd of approximately 5000 people decorating the graves of over 20,000 military personnel.

Over the years, it has become known as Memorial Day and in recent years, it seems that some people have attempted to turn this day into a day to recognize policemen, firemen or health care workers, but that is not and should not be our focus on this hallowed day.

We have two days a year when it’s designated that we do something to honor our military. In May, we have Memorial Day which is for those who are no longer with us and in November we have Veterans Day which is to honor all those who have served, or are now serving. That’s military service. Not being a policeman or a fireman, or any other type of serving, but a veteran of our military.

It gets my dander up when people mess with that!

No matter how heroic we find these non-military hero’s to be they are not military and do not belong in this conversation. I’m not saying that our policemen and firemen don’t deserve being honored for what they do, but lets not cheat our military hero’s by grouping them.

MEMORIAL DAY
May 28, 2012

Memorial Day approaches as soldiers’ step to the fore,
we’ll celebrate their service, just as many times before.

We’ll thank them for their gift, because of them, freedom reigns,
maybe not for the entire world, but at least they’re making gains.

Today we’ll honor those we’ve lost, for a few moments we’ll remember,
then we’ll put the memories away until a day in mid-November.

We’ll take their gift for granted at least til Veterans Day,
but their gift is all encompassing in nearly every single way.

Freedom, bought and paid for by the blood of brave soldiers,
with the fate of the entire world thrust upon their shoulders.

365 days a year our soldiers pay the price,
yet according to our calendar, we honor them only twice.

We need to tell them thank you more than just two days a year
and show more appreciation for the way they’ve calmed our fear.

It’s nice we have this day to honor their sacrifice,
but if we honored them every day it would be 365 times as nice.

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #53