What is Memorial Day? As I write this there is a commercial for a car dealer playing on the radio, it seems that many Americans think that it is the holiday marking the beginning of summer. A weekend full of great deals on cars, towels and sheets, and an untold number of sales across this nation. There will be BBQ’s galore where there is good weather, festivals and carnivals, races and parades. But in all that can you tell what Memorial Day is all about? I know that the American flag will be flying everywhere this weekend but how many people will understand why? Living on this planet has been a trial by fire ever since mankind took his first steps on it. If you believe in the Bible then it all started when Cain killed Able, and from that day the killings escalated to the frequency we have today. Oh there have been periods in world history where there was relative peace. But from the beginning of time Mankind has had to defend themselves from their neighbors. Clans fought clans, ethnic groups fought other ethnic groups and in all this fighting there has always been tales told around campfires about warriors who died in battle. We are no different today from our ancestors in this matter. We too have our warriors that have died in battle to keep us safe from our neighbors. This is what Memorial Day is about.
As mankind grew in numbers on the planet earth they had to spread out. Spreading out eventually had people running into others and land squabbles developed. The borders of this great nation are where they are today because of the need for expansion and we even fought wars over them. Wars are still being fought over land to this day just look at Israel and Palestine. Our land didn’t come cheap, ok It might have by today’s standards but there were many lives lost in the gaining of this county’s borders not to mention defending them. 25,700 colonists died in the revolutionary war along with 10,000 British. More than 10,000,000 have died in all the wars since. That is Ten Million counting military and civilian alike on all sides. All of this for the most part over land, I did say for the most part because as of late, meaning in the last 50 years or so we have been dealing with wars or rumors of wars fought over religious beliefs tied in with land ownership.
So as we await Monday morning and all of the festivities that it brings we need to take a moment and reflect on all those that lost their lives to keep us free of tyranny and oppression. Look up your local VFW hall and see if they are going to have a sunrise memorial service at your local cemetery. This is a great way to start your Memorial Day. When I was just a kid I would get up on Memorial Day early, the sunlight would be on the eastern horizon but the golden orb would not be breaking the day yet. I would ride my bike about a mile to the local public cemetery where the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion would be getting ready for the Memorial Day Ceremony. The attraction for me as a adolescent boy in the Midwest was the 21 gun salute. These old war veterans were using the old M1 Garand and the M14, both of which had wood stocks. It was here that I first found my respect for our military. I would be allowed to pick up some of the empty cartridges from the 21-gun salute and too me that was way cool!
As I grew older I still went down there on Memorial Day, but not for the brass casings. It was respect that I brought to the cemetery as a young man. Growing up in a small community in farm country you get to know the families of those lost during war so the ceremony gets a little more personal as you grow older and conflicts persist. Tears came to my eyes one Memorial Day in the early eighties, after the 21 gun salute, a bugle player played a mournful rendition of taps from behind the riflemen. When he finished another bugle player did the same only this time it was several hundred yards off behind us in the city park. Tears rolled down my face and chills ran through my body. I never forgot that feeling I felt that day. Since then I enlisted in the Army and stayed until 1995, I gained a lot of friends and lost a few along the way as well. I miss the camaraderie that was there between warriors serving this great country, sometimes I wish that I had stayed in but things change as they always do for a reason. I hold a different appreciation now for those who serve than I did back when I was just a boy. Now it is a brotherhood, I am an equal with those who served and still live. I am just below those who have died for the freedom we all enjoy and I hope and pray that they look down on us that still understand and know that we still care.
This weekend remember those that have fallen before you partake in the festivities.
May God bless you this weekend and keep you safe.
God Bless America
Timothy William Wylder
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