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"The joy of the Christian community
gathered with the veterans
is a sign of Jesus’ love for all."
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MEMORIAL DAY ARTICLE (Written by Dave Barera 2005-05-18.)
For many of us, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the season we’ve
been anxiously awaiting—summer. It’s the first long holiday weekend
of the year, and we clog I-75 on Friday heading north, and again on Monday
heading home. Memorial Day is also the day when we remember loved
ones who have gone before us. Visits to cemeteries are traditional
that day, or that weekend, perhaps the one time a year we might make such
a visit. But this hasn’t always been the case.
The Memorial Day holiday grew out of observances in towns in both the
North and the South dating from 1866, the year after the conclusion of
the deadliest war our nation has ever endured. In 1868, Gen. John
A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued a general order designating
May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating
the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the
late rebellion.” The tradition was established, and the date stuck
until 1971, when the Federal holiday was officially changed to the last
Monday in May. As our nation’s involvement in wars has lessened in
the past half century, and our veterans who fought the second “war to end
all wars” have reached their 80’s or 90's, the focus of the holiday has
broadened to include all of our loved ones, not just those who won, or
preserved, our freedom.
This has resulted in the tendency of many to overlook those for whom
the holiday was originally established, those who, in Lincoln’s words,
“gave their lives that that nation might live.” Among those most
often overlooked are those veterans who survived their wars, but came home
suffering incapacitating injuries, physical, mental, or emotional.
This Memorial Day weekend pray for those who have fought for the values
of our country, pray for those who have died while fighting, perhaps visit
a veterans memorial or cemetery, and consider offering some of your time
to the surviving veterans at the hospital and nursing home!
CLICK HERE to volunteer & say, “thank
you”, by your service, to a special group of men and women,
veterans of the U.S. armed forces who are cared for every day in the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, and nursing home.
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