A chance to remember

By MIKE RICHESON

Bigfork Eagle

A small, dedicated group gathered at the Lone Pine Cemetery behind the Little Brown Church on Monday to celebrate Memorial Day.

Although a heavy rain fell, community members huddled under two white tents while members of the VFW and Foreign Legion endured “field conditions.”

Pastor Curtis Wallace, who spent 21 years in the Air Force as a chaplain, spoke of the importance of remembering those who fell protecting our freedoms.

“Anytime a nation has greatness to remember, you have to remember those who made the country what it is,” Wallace said. “How do you communicate to people that what we do has meaning unless we look back? If we have historical amnesia, we lose our identity.”

Wallace stressed passing on the Unites States’ legacy to today’s children.

“For the parents to bring their children to the service, to see the demonstration and seeing the firing of the 21-gun salute - those are tangible,” Wallace said.

Some children even took part in the ceremony by planting flags on rows of crosses in memory of fallen veterans.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and is a way to remember those who have died in our nation’s service.

More than two dozen cities and towns lay claim to being the birthplace of Memorial day, but official credit went to Waterloo, New York, when President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the town the birthplace of Memorial Day in May 1966.

Historians, however, have not been able to conclusively prove the day’s origins. The celebration most likely had numerous separate beginnings.

Before the end of the Civil War, women’s groups in the South were decorating graves. A hymn published in 1867 called “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” makes reference to this practice.

Other locations across the United States began planned or spontaneous gatherings to honor the war dead during the 1860s.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. The first Memorial Day celebration took place on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

New York was the first state to officially recognize the holiday in 1873. By 1890, it was recognized in all of the northern states. The South refused to celebrate Memorial Day and honored its dead on separate days until after World War I, when the celebration became about honoring Americans who died in any war instead of its deep connection to the Civil War. Many southern states still have separate days to honor the Confederate war dead.

Memorial Day is now celebrated on the last Monday in May due to the passing of the National Holiday Act of 1971.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

Pastor Wallace read results from a survey that showed many Americans consider Memorial Day as “just another day off from work.”

There are, however, numerous observances still in effect. Since the late 1950s, on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the Third U.S. Infantry place small United States flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in more than 60 years.