RB Says "Happy Memorial Day Folks."

But forgets to mention why he is going to have a happy holiday.



by
LT Bobby Ross

Can I remember my experiences in war? Hardly. Fighting
for my country, my youth invested, seems such a long time ago, and so
unimportant.

Have I lost something? The traditional Memorial Day, also known
as Decoration Day, is on the 30th of May. This observed Memorial Day on
May
29th coincidentally allows for a national three day holiday. Such is
commercialism's capitalistic American display. But why do I feel so
stricken, like I have abandoned old friends from long ago? Their ghosts

consort with my floating years, and their spirits coast around my
presence.

Another three day holiday! Memorial Day! Maybe me and the kids can go
camping? Or, to the beach? Memorial Day is fun! This is the
inconsiderate, thoughtless approach to this meaningful, and consecrated

moment representing one three hundred and sixty-fifth of our year. What
is
the meaning of Memorial Day? Is it merely a three day escape from our
worldly duties? Or, is it the official beginning of summer? Is selling
more hot dogs at the ballpark the overriding clarification?

Many souls, sacrificed in war, in duty to America, are wandering. They
drift in a
heavenly place, minus their future here upon earth. Tomorrows were
forfeited.
Given up so our nation would invigorate free souls, aspire them to
freedom, and justly allow their lives lived as they prefer. Raising
offspring above restrictions, as they desire. Those lost lives giving
we,
the living, what we want freely.

Those are the souls we respect on Memorial Day.


This means it is a sacred day. Without retrospect, sacrifice is
mute. Old Glory does not wave by accident. It flutters in the spring
air
revealing honor. The color red represents the blood bloom from those
who
fell, those who clawed, those who cried in horrible pain. Those who
died
fast. And, those who died ever so slowly. They did their duty. When I
see
Old Glory waving on a sunny, end of May day, the pigment red gushes
from
millions of souls, floating, not with us, anymore. They are amongst our

heroes, cajoling with angels with their champions, conquerors and
commanders. Friends and loved ones gather, over the rave, witness to
those
who gave more than anyone should be required to relinquish. They did
not
want to yield. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when
the
moment harshly struck them their fatal blow, they cried for their
mother, or
their friend.

Then there were those, many of those, who knew exactly what they were
giving. They
moved forward knowingly. They lost their lives so their mission would
be
accomplished. Fools! Some intellects can say that. One would have to be

an imbecile to give up life, no matter what the cause. For a flag?
Futile!
For a country! More pointless! For freedom! What freedom is there in
mortality? Yes, fools they may have been, but their numbers add up in
an
awesome display of American loss! Veterans' Cemeteries, white badges
sailing row after row after row upon green grass, almost never ending,
creeping onto the horizon. Constant reminders of the devastation of our

human treasure. Mothers' tears, enough to fill an ocean to overflow.
Sweethearts, broken hearted, reading telegrams. Sons and daughters,
many
unborn, wakening at birth to a devastated family suffering from a
victim of
war there no more. And what does all this macabre math equal? Memorial
Day
is the correct answer.

Few Americans know a person who died in war.
Their family trees have lost some leaves, falling as they fought in one
of
America's wars, or discarded in the peacetime military. We are a busy
people. We have business to capture. Our kids are in school. We have
chores. Mundane, or surrealistic. We are a spirited society, seeking
applications to improve ourselves and our communities. We are a helpful

populace, always there when the going gets tough to help those who have

suffered the tragedies of nature, whether a hurricane or a famine.


Americans are always the first on the scene worldwide bearing their
gifts of
human spirit and abundance. This is why it is so puzzling that the
meaning
of Memorial Day seems to lack substance to many of our own people. Even

with the day itself. Put back to accommodate a holiday schedule fixed
by
some organism no one knows, yet powerful enough to do so, the day
itself
lacks consequence to too many. Many who never knew a person who died in

service to America are wrought with the invisible pain of not feeling
for
those who do. Americans take things for granted. We have so much. So
very much. Endless choices. These options are not available worldwide.
Our
shelves are full. Unlike many in other nations of the world. So many
are
empty or offer very limited selections. Those American fighting men and

women killed in battle whose souls are floating actually made available

these wondrous choices we have every day of our American lives. Yet,
most
of our youngsters have no idea whatsoever what this means. They don't
learn
this in school. We must teach them. For without knowledge, they may end
up
thinking, or believing, all these marvelous selections came without
circumstance. Minus anything. Equaling no meaning.

Our nation needs to halt and perceive the flags and flowers on our
Veterans graves on this consecrated holiday. We need to lift a common
voice of adoration to those floating spirits of our onetime American
Warriors, and extol them with a salutation.

We have not come that far with our technological miracles of this
millennium to become crass. We still
need respect. Our backs can not turn from formality. Our eyes can not
look
away from custom. Our voices must not resonate in silence against honor
and
glory. To do so will leave us hollow, only to fill us with that which
is
desolate and lacking potential. This is not the true meaning of
Memorial
Day. The heartfelt significance requires reminding. Story telling.
Wisdom
being passed on from our Veterans to our younger generations. An
interpretation certified by those who remember the horrors of war.
Without
this core, our society can not remain genuine. It becomes contemptible.
It
rots from within.


These floating souls of our lost American Warriors are a
powerful force, for they live within our hearts. They constantly seek
justification for their contributions, and they are real within us.
Such is
what our American substance stands for, where character is developed,
individually is guaranteed, and a community, a nation, survives.


America enters the 21st Century as the most powerful entity
humankind has ever experienced. America permeates this next century
with
vast responsibilities. Our children must bear this promise. We can not
turn our backs on these bygone descendants, nor can we do so upon
ourselves. Memorial Day offers us the opportunity to express a moment
of
solitude where each of us can personify in our own way what we feel. I
only speak for my myself, as one who has bared his soul to the dread of
war. So my father did, and his father's father before him, and their
souls
float amongst the multitudes. My mother and her mother held their
Veterans
after they returned from war, tears streaming down their cheeks in
gratitude
for their safe return. And there were those in my ancestry who did not
return from war. And their mothers' tears soaked the pillows on beds
for
generations to sleep upon. Their souls are the dreams that drift
amongst
the floating, gathering at the end of May in the breeze of summer's
coming,
in the cool glass of lemonade at the child's street side stand, in the
cheers at the ball game from the crowd rooting their team to victory
and
enjoying the best hot dogs in the world. Let us all stop for a moment,
whether it is on the traditional day, or the observed Memorial Day, or
even
at the end of May, and reach for those floating souls. Let us reveal to

them how much we cherish their sacrifice for our free people. Let these

memories harvest our recognition of the meaning of Memorial Day in a
very
simple word. And let that word, simply stated be: Thanks.