In case I’d forgotten this was
Memorial Day weekend, I was reminded by the bumper-to-bumper traffic in town
yesterday. Our town sets between Kansas City and the Lake of the Ozarks so
every summer weekend we are in the cross-hairs of tourists. Memorial Day and
Labor Day turn Limit and Broadway into parking lots.
I don’t suppose most of those
people are headed to cemeteries to decorate graves of loved ones. Decoration
Day was established to honor Americans who died in wars, but has evolved into a
weekend of fun in the sun and store-wide “Memorial Day Sales!” Yep. The way to honor
those who made the ultimate sacrifice is to celebrate and buy bargains. Memorial
Day is most definitely a red-white-and-blue day right down to sales ads for
clothing, hardware, lawn furniture, and every other consumerist purchase
possible.
I remember when as a working person,
Memorial Day was the first official holiday of the year. I admit that after our
annual run to place flowers on the graves of loved ones, we spent the rest of
the weekend pursuing some sort of fun activity.
Now, the highlight of Memorial Day
is to attend the ceremony at the Veterans Cemetery in Higginsville and place
flowers for Jim in front of the columbarium. Many of the graves at the cemetery
hold the bodies or ashes of those who died fighting for this country. Others,
like Jim, didn’t die in the war, but as one veteran said at a Vietnam program, “I
died in Vietnam; I just didn’t know it.”
That’s what happened to Jim. Taking
human life stole part of his soul and left it lying in the jungle beside the
fallen. His life was never the same after he saw the lifeless bodies taken down
by his M16. Jim had PTSD before we knew it even existed. When dementia faded
his short-term memories, Vietnam clamored to the forefront of his mind.
Did you know that 3:00 p.m. local
time is set aside on Memorial Day as a national moment of remembrance? At the
appointed time on Monday, pause, remove your ball cap, and bow your head for
the 1.1 million American soldiers who have died for this country.
Maybe a fun-filled weekend is the
way to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep this country free. It’s
a time to think about what is right about our country instead of what is wrong.
This patriotic weekend is a time of remembrance. The most important thing we
should remember is that our freedom wasn’t free.
Copyright © May 2017 by L.S. Fisher
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