Sunday, May 27, 2012

Memorial Day: A Day of Mourning and Remembrance for American War Dead


Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday intended to honor all American servicemen who died in hostile action in wartime.  It was first commemorated after the Civil War (the War Between the States).

In my post from May of 2009, Memorial Day Is Not Meant to be Happy, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2009/05/memorial-day-not-meant-to-be-happy.html, I explained the error of those who observe the holiday as if it were a celebration.  Yet there is another error in recognition of the significance of this holiday that also dilutes its significance by broadening it far beyond its intended purpose: that of honoring people other than those whom the holiday is intended to honor. 

Memorial Day is not a day of mourning and remembrance for all who died.  It is neither a day to honor veterans who survived war, nor to commemorate those veterans who died in peacetime service or service not in the theater of war.  Instead, Memorial Day is intended to mourn and remember those servicemen who died in war.  It is them – and only them – whom we hallow on this holiday.

Among those to be honored should include those servicemen who died at Little Rock and Ft. Hood at the hands of jihadists as part of the War on Terrorism, as I noted in my post from February of this year, American Casualties of Jihad in the U.S. Homeland Should be Awarded Purple Hearts,  http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/02/american-casualties-of-jihad-in-us.html.

May all U.S. servicemen who sacrificed their lives in war for freedom rest in peace and may we honor their memory by bequeathing the blessings of liberty they bequeathed to us to our posterity. 

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