Posted on 05/25/2015 6:54:05 AM PDT by SandRat
It’s time for a short American history lesson, especially appropriate on the day we honor our war dead, those killed in combat defending us.
Surprisingly, Memorial Day has its genesis not in the Revolutionary War, which we fought to gain our independence from England from 1775 to 1783.
Rather, it was the 20th war or conflict of the 74, so far, we as a nation have engaged in — including 20 named against Native Americans.
It was our own Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865.
America’s Civil War was a bloody affair and there was nothing civil about it.
It was nearly a case of national suicide.
The South declared they would no longer by members of the Union, seceding to make their point. They believed they had certain rights under the American Constitution. Those rights would include continuing the south’s particular institution of slavery — an affront to any logical person — but an economic necessity, at least through eyes of southern leaders.
Abraham Lincoln was advised the U.S. flag should be redesigned to eliminate a star for every seceding state but he refused to, rather seeing those states as wayward children which had to be brought back into the Union, saying they still were Americans
And it took a horrendous war, which split families and friends, to keep that Union together.
Although the true figures of those who lost their lives wearing the blue of the Union and the gray of the Confederacy is unknown, an estimated 750,000 died, with the majority succumbing to diseases.
Of the nearly 215,000 combat deaths, 140,000 were from the Union and the remainder, about 75,000 were Confederates.
But the death toll of that war did not include the civilians, who today would be called collateral damage, the silliest term I have ever heard to describe the deaths of civilians.
What I’m saying when it comes to the wars/conflicts we have engaged in, the true death toll will never be known. The impacts on families and drain on the national coffers cannot be truly calculated and the loss of talent the dead could have brought to the nation will never be known.
The aftermath of our Civil War has led to one day a year where now all those who have died in combat are honored.
But initially, and even today, that isn’t settled.
Which community did it first?
Which village, town or city started decorating graves of the fallen?
North and south claim the honor for what initially was called Decoration Day, with white and black communities declaring they were first.
The vignettes of claims are numerous but in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation in which he named Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of Memorial Day based on a congressional resolution to the fact that in 1868 General John A. Logan, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a forerunner of many of today’s military service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, issued General Order 11, calling for a Decoration Day to be observed nationally every year on May 30.
Decoration Day slowly morphed into Memorial Day, with the latter becoming the approved name to honor the nation’s war dead by federal law in 1967. In 1971, instead of May 30 being the day to remember the combat fallen of all wars, the U.S. government changed a number of holidays to allow for a three-day weekends resulting in Memorial Day being held on the last Monday in May.
After the Civil War, the next highest number of combat deaths was World War II, during which nearly 292,000 died.
During the time of the Revolutionary War the U.S. had an estimated population of 2.5 million, at the time of the Civil War it was slightly more than 31 million, World War II saw the population at more than 133 million and today it is in excess of 320 million.
In total, the wars we have been engaged in have taken the lives of more than 664,000 of our citizens — men and women who have perished in combat.
These are the ones who we honor today, for Memorial Day is dedicated to those who died protecting us. On the other hand, Veterans Day is set aside to honor those who have served in the nation’s armed forces and is held in November.
So today, take a little of your time and go to one of the many Memorial Day ceremonies, a few of which are listed in today’s paper.
The ceremonies are generally short, averaging an hour or a little more.
Just think of the time preparing for and engaging in combat which took the lives of those who we honor today.
Surely you can do that.
It’s a simple way to say thanks to those who gave their lives from the Revolutionary War to today’s continuing conflicts as we fight terrorism.
If not, shame on you.
And that’s as I see it.
Pay your respects
• 9 a.m. at the Evergreen Cemetery in Bisbee hosted by VFW Post 836 and American Legion Post 16
• 11 a.m. at Memory Gardens in Bisbee, hosted by American Legion Post 836 and American Legion Post 16
• 11 a.m. at Cochise Memory Gardens Cemetery off of Charleston Road in Sierra Vista hosted by American Legion Post 52
• 11:30 a.m. at the Old Post Cemetery on Fort Huachuca hosted by the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence
The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans, wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day, to pause in an act of national unity for a duration of one minute. The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather, it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died in service to the United States.
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