Memorial Day 2020

Memorial Day 2020

Today is Memorial Day.  Yes, it is the unofficial start of summer (ending with Labor Day).  It was the traditional weekend for the Indianapolis 500.  It is the weekend for picnics and summer outings.  Now, if we could get away from isolation and quarantines long enough for a picnic and to practice social distancing.

Memorial Day - a day to “remember”.

When I grew up, it was called “Decoration Day”.  I was too young to know or remember any Civil War veterans but did know veterans from World War I and II (and even the Korean War) by the time I was old enough to know what the day was for.

My parents and grandparents took flowers (I remember peonies) to the cemetery to remember relatives and friends who were in the service.  

The remembrance came from the Civil War - the bloodiest war in our country.  Brother against brother; Northern Yankees against Southern separatists.  (The rhetoric was, of course, different - some in the South called the Civil War “The War of Northern Aggression”)  

For many years Decoration Day was on May 30th.  Then the congress made it the last Monday in May.  I remember a friend from South Dakota who thought it was terrible to make the day into a three day weekend.  He thought (and probably rightfully so), that Americans would forget about our war dead and our Veterans and go on picnics and other things.

And I remember Vietnam - and friends that didn’t come back; and heroes like my favorite-brother-in-law who came home with shrapnel in his body.  THANK YOU BILL!!!

And, some thoughts.  All countries (except maybe Switzerland) have had wars - and nationalism and patriotism.

We used to sing “This is my land” - with words (translated) by Sibelius from Finland.  There was also another version - “This is my song” to the same tune (Finlandia).  The implication is that all countries have blue skies, and all countries have people who want peace, who have dreams and hope.  

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine;

this is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

Sometimes with all the voices of the world that can get strident, we need to think of the bigger picture.  I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Belarus and Kazakhstan - former Soviet Union states - and Germany, Austria, and Ireland.  And - parents there want their children to grow up and be successful; they want peace for their families  A former student from Syria has agonized over the divisions in her country.  

And … there are times that I also agonize over the divisions in our country.  “United we stand, divided we fall”.  May this Memorial Day be a day that promotes unity, that promotes (virtual) hugs and tones down the rhetoric.

Why can’t we learn to live in Peace!!!

Happy Memorial Day 2020 

Karen