Reason for the Season

There is always such an uproar about how commercial the Christmas season has gotten and you often see bumper stickers with or hear the phrase "remember the reason for the season". I'll admit house after house of giant inflatable Santas and snow globes gets a bit tiresome, but I feel even more strongly about what Memorial Day has turned into.

Most Americans love Memorial Day because it means a day off from work or school, a long weekend and the start of summer. It means cookouts, trips to the beach and days on the lake. For military families, it means something else entirely. It means someone is missing their family this Memorial Day so you could enjoy the day with yours. Memorial Day is, above all, a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.

It is also a day of mourning for so many families. There are a lot of people I want to pause and remember on this day. The picture above is of the widow of a soldier from my hometown, SGT James J Regan, who was killed in Iraq in February, 2007. He was a graduate of Duke University who could have done anything with his life upon graduating. He scored very high on the LSATs and could have gone on to law school, but he chose to enlist in the U.S Army. Most people believe that he enlisted because he felt it was his duty. My hometown sends a lot of communters on the train toward Wall Street every morning. On 9/11 a lot of those commuters didn't come back and there were funerals all over the town. No one can ever truly explain what calls someone to serve. Whether it is the challenge, love of country, or simply the sense of adventure and opportunity to "blow things up" (as many of my high school seniors going into the service have confessed), the bottom line is they sacrifice a tremendous amount and deserve to be remembered.

I can't lie, I am enjoying my three day weekend. I will enjoy cooking burgers and eating watermelon and pie with my big brother, but at 3 PM I will pause for the National Moment of Remembrance. Did you even know there was such a thing? I would wager 90% of Americans don't. Most Americans probably don't know why people wear poppies on Memorial Day. The reason for that is most Americans have forgotten the significance and traditions of Memorial Day.

The story behind the poppies, by the way, comes from a UGA professor who wrote a response to the WWI poem "In Flanders Field". The first line of the poem reads, “in Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses row on row." The UGA professor was so moved that she wrote a response poem and vowed to wear a poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served. I leave you with her poem.

We Shall Keep the Faith
by Moina Michael, November 1918

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Field