Memorial Day on the Ground
A quick glance around, UPDATED:
Acute Politics with Promotion Party and Gator. Not exactly Memorial Day pieces, but they are, when you live where every day is Memorial Day. For the occasion, here’s a reprise of the Devil’s Windchimes, which Don calls The Road to Hell.
Badgers Forward, Memorial Day Observed.
Michael Yon’s Memorial Day Message.
From the Desert Flier archives, Dedication and This is How We Roll.
UPDATE: Bush at Arlington.
UPDATE: Surber, helpfully, “Oh, AP, 184 people died at the Pentagon on 9/11. Might want to include that as well.”
The Calm Before The Sand expresses some bitterness, hopes you choke on it, in The Mark of Your Shame.
UPDATE: Cindy Sheehan at Kos, “Good Riddance Attention Whore.”
The Anchoress: These Formidable People Think Freedom Is So Valuable That It Is Worth Dying For.
Butterfly Wife, The Memorial Day Ads Are Here.
My Desert Adventure, The Real Hero.
Iraq the Model on a different kind of Memorial Day event, today in Baghdad.
(UPDATE on talks, Crocker tells Iran to cut the crap, Reuters. Aside from that, general agreement, crap must end, AP. Iran doesn’t bring up the five Revolutionary Guard detainees.)
Soldiers’ Angels Germany, Remember.
Old War Dogs, Don’t Let Them be Forgotten.
Argghhh!!! Today We Honor Those Who Have Gone Before.
Mudville’s Memorial Day Dawn Patrol.
Blackfive’s How to Honor the Real Heroes.
Malkin, How Not to Honor a Fallen Hero.
Dr. Sanity, America the Singularity.
Earlier here: How to Celebrate Memorial Day, Loss and Bitterness, and Happy Memorial Day
We’re doing something different this year. We usually go to the parade and ceremony in our town, where the reading of the names goes back to eight men killed in King Philip’s War, 1675.* In school my son’s up to the Civil War, and was reading about the 54th Massachusetts last Friday. So we rented the move “Glory,” which is rated R but appropriate for a kid with a sense of context, and today, we’ll go to Boston to the Shaw Memorial at the top of Boston Common. After which I have to go to work.
* Here’s the essay Mudville references, as the link doesn’t appear to be working:
THE BAY STATE REMEMBERS; The War on Terror: The 48 who gave their lives
JULES CRITTENDEN
28 May 2006
In my town tomorrow, George Earle will read the names. He’ll start with the eight Marshfield men killed in King Philip’s War, 1675.
John Borrows, Samuel Bumpus, Joseph Eames, John Gorham, Joseph Phillips, Thomas Little, John Low, Joseph White. Everyone would have known them. Their loss would have devastated the town. There were no more than 400 people living in town then.
Nearly 25,000 people live there now. About 500 to 700 of them will show up at Veterans Park tomorrow. A similar number will line the parade route. It will be the same in most American towns. Small crowds gathering.
It is the unofficial start of summer, and a lot of our neighbors won’t be there. Not everybody has to care, and not everyone has to be there. They are free to play if they want to. It’s a free country.
We are hoping for a sunny day for our gathering, when we listen to George work through the names of the town’s dead from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the two World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.
There are no names on his list from Iraq or Afghanistan yet. Thank God. I’d have to fight back tears if there were, because I’ve gotten soft that way. While George is reading, I’ll think about the names on my own list.
This is the day we remember them all. The kids get to wave their flags and watch the parade and scramble for candy. We bring them down because they love parades, and so maybe someday it will mean something more to them, too.
“It isn’t about waving the flag and being patriotic,” said John Eade, 63, who saw a lot of his friends die in Vietnam and knows what he is talking about.
“It’s a look at who we are and how we got here,” John said. He will attend the ceremony in another Massachusetts town. Memorial Day for him is about the history, all the generations who did this. His own list includes a brother who was killed in Korea and a great- uncle who died at Shiloh.
“What they were fighting for, in their hearts, was so that their families and friends could live with the ideals we believe in,” he said.
Now, there are another 48 Bay State families whose sons gave their lives, this time in the war on terror. For them, Memorial Day will never again be just the start of summer. It has become a day on which they share their sacrifice with all of us. Lou Petithory admits he used to be one of those people for whom it was just another holiday.
“Before Danny died, I’d be lying to you if I said it meant a lot to me,” said Mr. Petithory, whose son Dan was killed in Afghanistan in December 2001.
“Almost every single day for me is Memorial Day,” said Dan’s younger sister Nicole. “I’d like to have a day when it’s just a barbecue. I’m sort of envious of people who can say, `Let’s just have some chicken on the grill.’ I guess it’s selfish of me.”
Nicole was a senior at Simmons College when it happened. She loved her older brother and she misses him. She’ll meet her parents tomorrow at Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Winchendon, where they are among the guests at a ceremony to honor soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It can be emotionally exhausting, she said, but she has a duty to her brother’s memory and what he died for, and she will be there.
Which brings us to the pressing question of the day. Where will you be?
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds’ answer, Giving blood.
Topics: military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:29 am on Monday, May 28, 2007
22 Responses to “Memorial Day on the Ground”
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May 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am
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May 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am
“Which brings us to the pressing question of the day. Where will you be?”
Bluff City Cemetary. Mouring the dead from our town - Civil War up to and including OEF…
May 28th, 2007 at 9:41 am
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May 28th, 2007 at 9:44 am
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May 28th, 2007 at 10:13 am
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May 28th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Memorial Day
Jules Crittenden has a great roundup today entitled Memorial Day on the Ground. Many great links.
May 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Memorial Day
Funny but last I checked, Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. Nowhere that I checked did I find any connection to boating.
Go figure. But then, consider the source.
May 28th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
One must really admire Gov. Phil Richards of New Mexico. First American with Hispanic blood (puts hand over microphone) ummmm, make that third after Carmen Miranda and Desi Arnaz. Congratulations, Phil.
To all that have served and have given pieces of your heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears and then some, in service of our great nation, thank you.
May 28th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Meme-orial Day
Glenn Reynolds points to this WSJ columns about the heroes who go to war. Former football star Pat Tillman and Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham were killed on the same day: April 22, 2004. But as details of his death fitfully emerged from Afghanistan, Tillman…
May 28th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
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May 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Remembering Memorial Day
Jules Crittenden has an excellent Memorial Day roundup.
May 28th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Memorial Day 2007: They Did God’s Work
The American Spectator: They Did God’s Work
By Ben Stein
Remarks delivered on Saturday evening in Arlington, Virginia, at the Memorial Day weekend seminar and grief camp of TAPS — the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.
THANK YOU FOR LE…
May 28th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
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May 28th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Memorial Day
So, I don’t have words of great poignancy or power to share with you today. I only ask that you join me in acknowledging the staggering gift of lives laid down for us, and in vowing to live that our own lives may be worthy of such a gift.
May 28th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Memorial Day Tribute
We bow our heads and pray for you,
Our country’s heroes, red, white and blue.
The Nation stops and stands still today,
To honor you on Memorial Day.
May 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
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May 28th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
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May 28th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Remembering around the web (Renamed, updated, bumped)
Obviously I’m not the only blogger remembering our fallen today. A little sampling of some of the better things I’ve found so far: Two I’d probably have seen anyway, but thank you Lorie Byrd for making sure I did. Remember Memorial Day - Thank You F…
May 28th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Finally, a brave young soldier, will rest in peace, hopefully. Thank you, Casey.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Cindy Sheehan Takes Back Her Life
Cindy Sheehan has decided it’s time to take back her life, or more aptly put, get on with it. I can’t say that I would disagree with her on that. She’s fought the good fight, been the front of the anti-war movement after the loss of …
May 29th, 2007 at 5:05 am
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