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Once, a news reporter on the television, talking about the coming Memorial Day weekend, commented about the high price of gas noting, “It’s tough out here.”  Memorial Day should not be seen as just another opportunity for a 3-day weekend with complaints on the high cost of fuel for transportation. Memorial Day stems from the need and desire to recognize and honor the sacrifice of those who perished in war. We all enjoy the chance for a day off from work, a day to enjoy a BBQ, or a chance to drive and visit relatives; there is certainly nothing wrong with this – but, as we enjoy the day, let us take pause to reflect on the many lives lost in service to our country.

Memorial Day has its roots in the desire of Henry C. Welles, a pharmacist from Waterloo, NY, to honor the Civil War dead.  He shared his idea with the town clerk, General John B. Murray, who helped formulate a committee to honor the war dead. Services were held to honor those who died, May 5th, 1866. Two years later, General John A. Logan issued a General Order establishing Memorial Day. In 1971, Congress established the last Monday in May as the day to recognize as Memorial Day. With between 600,000 to 750,000 soldiers killed in the Civil War, it is easy to imagine that the loss and grief experienced by friends and family must have been widespread. The number of Civil War soldiers who died is roughly half of all combat deaths in all our wars.

President Lincoln who well aware of the cost of the civil war in terms of life lost said: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

 

Let us remember this Memorial Day to honor the memory of those who have fallen and the terrible cost of war.

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