Sunday, May 24, 1998

Memorial Day's truest meaning

This three-day Memorial Day weekend marks the official beginning of summer vacation, and traditionally, we celebrate this seasonal juncture with great eagerness.

It brings to an end a long school year. It divides graduation month from weddings month. It means swimming pools are open. It's time to put on the shorts and sandals and light the charcoal on the barbecue pit.

But in our hurry to relax, we sometimes overlook the true meaning of Memorial Day. It is intended as a tribute to the 1.1 million men and women who have died in time of war while defending the freedom of these United States.

Originally, the holiday was called Decoration Day, established to honor America's Civil War dead on May 30, 1868, at the urging of the Grand Army of the Republic "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades."

In that great conflagration, an America much smaller than today's lost 618,000 dead in four years. Since then, many more have fallen in many more wars. And over the decades, the memorial has been expanded to honor the American dead of all those wars, from Bunker Hill to Kuwait City.

We are grateful, this weekend, that the nation is at peace with its world neighbors and generally has been for some time now, without facing danger of a major war. Thus, Memorial Day and the long, lazy weekend are by all means fit for enjoyment.

But we might pause during our fun to reflect on the lost lives of those who made it possible for us to live this comfortably and securely in America -- and on the long line of war dead stretching back to the very beginning of our nation -- and to recall with respectful memory that this is a holiday with a most solemn tradition.