Just my little rant….I believe that Memorial Day should not be moved around it should forever remain on 30 May much like Veterans Day….after all Memorial Day is to honor those that gave their lives in service of their country…..not the best day for massive consumerism.

What do you know of Memorial Day other than you get an extra day off from work?

If you are going to act like this is some sort of special day then you should know what it is and how we got to where we are….

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868,
the head of an organization of Union veterans — the
Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established
Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the
graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A.
Logan declared it should be May 30. It is believed the
date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all
over the country.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across
the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The ceremonies centered around the
mourning- draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E.
Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided
over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan
Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers
on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Congressman James Garfield spoke about the solemn occasion. “We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue,” he said.

The GAR said Decoration Day should be observed on May 30 each year because the timing would permit flowers to be in bloom all over the country.

Some local areas observed similar ceremonies starting in 1866. In 1888, Congress passed an act making May 30 a holiday in the District of Columbia. By the start of the 20th century, ceremonies were being held on May 30 around the country. And after World War I, the holiday was expanded to honor all American war fatalities.

The name “Memorial Day” became more commonplace after World War II. But the federal government didn’t officially adopt that name until 1967.

The Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 moved the holiday to the last Monday in May. Originally, Veterans Day also was in the list of government holidays slated to always be on a Monday, but it was moved back to its original day of November 11 in 1978.

For years, efforts to reestablish the May 30 date by the VFW, the American Legion, and Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii didn’t succeed. Inouye, who died in 2012 at the age of 88, wasn’t just a senior member of Congress. He was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, as a medical volunteer. He later enlisted in the Army and lost an arm serving his country while in Italy.

But the proponents of Memorial Day’s original meaning argue that it should always be on May 30, no matter the day of the week, as a way for more people to recall why people made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

I am one of those vets that thinks it should be on the day, 30 May….a time to remember the honored dead and not the time for a cut-rate mattress.

Please take some time to remember those that gave their all for this country and their families that lost so much.

This will be more only post today for I have some memories to work on……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”