27 May 2006
Remember
While recently at Ft. McHenry, I saw the display shown below. (Click on the image if you want to see it at its home on Flickr in full-size (1752px x 1115px) and read the posters making up the display.)
The "one moment" idea, suggested by The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance, is to stop whatever you're doing on Monday, 29 May 2006, at 3:00 p.m. local time, and remember those who have died performing armed service to the USA.
Chris Michel at Defense Tech has more:
The "one moment" idea, suggested by The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance, is to stop whatever you're doing on Monday, 29 May 2006, at 3:00 p.m. local time, and remember those who have died performing armed service to the USA.
Chris Michel at Defense Tech has more:
Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn occasion, a uniquely military holiday—the only one that honors fallen soldiers. But since the first one on May 30, 1868, a little after the Civil War (then known as “Decoration Day”) when flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers from both the North and the South, Memorial Day’s quiet reverence has slowly been lost to the noise of commerce and the American pursuit of recreation. This didn’t happen overnight; it snuck up on us. And it’s not necessarily the fault of the American people who time and again have proved themselves patriots.It's Memorial Day weekend. Remember the fallen ones.
[...]
Losing brave Americans on fields of strife is not a new phenomenon. It’s part of our heritage. For over two hundred and twenty five years, our troops have made the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed was worth more than their own lives: Freedom. Not just the notion of freedom or the sound bite called forth in politically expedient ways, but freedom practiced by Americans every day.
This freedom is a gift across time, given most often anonymously. And now it is Memorial Day. How can Americans take it back and do right by the valor that created this day?
By action. For starters, the National Moment of Remembrance resolution asks that at 3 PM local time on Memorial Day all Americans should “voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence.”
[...]
Visit the graves of fallen soldiers. Leave a flower on the stone. Consider the grave and behold the cost of freedom.
Or simply shake a Soldier’s hand. Support for the troops is more than a sticker on an SUV. Whatever we do, let’s make it personal, not commercial.
