Let’s Not Forget Why We Celebrate Memorial Day

Just before 8 a.m., on Dec. 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese warplanes bombed the Pearl Harbor naval base.

Twenty ships and 300 airplanes were destroyed.

Around 1,000 were wounded.

Most importantly, though, 2,400 US personnel died.

The memory of those 2,400 people is one of the reasons we observe Memorial Day.

We also observe it for those who died in the Battle of the Bulge, Gettysburg, Lexington and Concord, and countless other battles and skirmishes during our nation’s 245-year history.

Memorial Day honors those who left with a backpack and came home in a body bag, if they came home at all.

More than 1.31 million lives have been lost defending our country on battlefields, in the skies and on the sea since America was founded.

Memorial Day is important. It’s for those 1.31 million lives lost.

Let’s not water it down.

We sometimes tend to get lazy when we talk about patriotic holidays, and Memorial Day is always the one we mess up the worst. I can prove it. Try this experiment.

Sometime over the weekend, jump on Facebook. I guarantee you that within the first five posts you see about Memorial Day, someone will get it wrong.

Memorial Day is for your grandfather who was killed in Iwo Jima.

It’s for your father who was ambushed outside of Saigon and didn’t make it.

It’s for your sister who didn’t come home from Iraq after her convoy was blown up outside Kabul.

Memorial Day is for my cousin who died in France in the winter of 1942.

Like you, I had family members who fought in the Revolution, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Korea

And as proud I am of their service, Memorial Day isn’t even for them because they all came home except for my cousin who didn’t come home from France.

While contemplating how this column was going to go, I ran across some interesting facts doing the research. Feel free to fascinate your friends around the picnic table with these tidbits.

Memorial Day wasn’t declared an official holiday until 1971, but people first started informally observing it shortly after the civil war.

Some people credit a group of recently freed slaves in Charleston, SC, for having the original observance just days after the war ended. But, the Federal government declared Waterloo, NY, the official home of Memorial Day in 1966. 

Waterloo first celebrated Memorial Day on May 5, 1866.

The date was picked because if wasn’t the anniversary of any battle.

Southern states celebrated it during a different time of the year until after World War I.

It was originally called Decoration Day. That’s what I remember it being called as a child. We always went to my aunt’s house for a spread of food like no other time of the year.

A national moment of remembrance occurs at 3 p.m., local time on Memorial Day.

I think I’ll set a reminder right now so I won’t forget. Why don’t we all.

And when you’re splashing around in the pool or scooting up the river this weekend enjoying an all-American hotdog, remember what Memorial Day is and what it isn’t.

It’s about those 1.31 million people who never came home. It’s about them and no one else.

Let’s not water it down.