Memorial Day weekend is traditionally regarded as the beginning of the summer season, but while barbecues, pool parties, picnics and time with family and friends are indeed wonderful things, it's important also to remember that the holiday is dedicated to the men and women who have died in service to our country.
With that in mind, please take a brief moment and click on the link below to visit CNN's excellent Home and Away site, which was set up to make sure that each of the more than 6,000 U.S. and coalition soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to date are recognized as the living, breathing individuals they once were, rather than merely faceless numbers or names on a list of the dead.
Have fun this weekend, and enjoy yourselves, but please don't forget the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
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| Click image to visit CNN's Home and Away |
3 comments:
Hey, thanks for this post. I'm reminded of when Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. We used to have a parade and then everyone would go to the cemetery to clean up and decorate the graves - particularly the ones of soldiers.
This past weekend my mother, my sister and I made the pilgrimage to the small-town cemetery where my grandparents (he a WWI vet) and great-grandparents are buried.
The local VFW and AM-VETS there do a splendid job - in addition to the usual small flags on every military grave, they also put a wooden white cross and a small bouquet of poppies.
My family and I have developed a tradition that once we have taken care of our 'family and friends' we take our wire brushes and clean the lichens off all the old vets graves - the ones with no flowers and they are usually from WWI or WWII. We take our flowers from the previous year that are still in good shape and place them on these 'untended' graves so they are recognized.
While I certainly honor those who have served in our recent wars - I also want to remember those who - like my grandfather - served in previous ones as well.
I definitely agree we should honor all of the fallen. My hope in focusing on those who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, is that pointedly personalizing them will help bring those wars to a close.
Totally and 100% agreed!
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