One of my privileges each Memorial and Veterans Days is to participate in our town's ceremonies honoring our military past. As the town's fire department chaplain I'm typically invited to give invocations and/or benedictions, which I'm honored to do.
In Nags Head the numbers turning out for these annual celebrations is growing, and that's a good thing. It was great today to see a contingent from the local Marine Corps League detachment in the crowd. But the growth is from the senior population. Noticably absent were children.
So it begs the question: Are we teaching our children why we have such holidays? My guess is "No", because their parents' generation was never taught either. So instead of taking the opportunity to honor and remember the sacrifices made for our freedoms we simply enjoy those freedoms, taking the price paid for them for granted.
Memorial Day has lost the memorial aspect, and is instead a holiday for the beach and picnics. Don't think so? Ask a ten year old tomorrow what Memorial Day is about.
If we neglect our history what will be our future? Teach your children well.
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7 comments:
did I detect a Graham Nash lyric at the end of the post?
It goes with the title of the post. Not sure which guy wrote it - Crosby, Stills or Nash. Maybe Young.
If it makes you feel any better about it at all, my six children have always participated in Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and now Patriot's Day events, and they can explain to you why all three are important. I consider it a parental duty to raise them to be appreciative of all they have including every single one of their freedoms. My boys were part of the flag ceremony at the American Legion Hall's MD service yesterday, and my girls were there to watch. I thought you just might want to know that there are some patriotic kids in existance... :0)
You are so correct! Friday in the third grade class we talked about Memorial day, and I read them a book about the history of the holiday. One of the kids came back today and asked if he could check the book out of the library (no because its the last week of school), because his mom didn't believe him about the history of the holiday. Sad. I gave him the copies of some of the things I had found on the internet for him to show her.
In Canada, we've noticed an increase in children, young people and families attending remembrance activities since Canada signed on for combat duty in Afghanistan. It seems that as our "greatest generation" passes, in Canada at least, the generations that came after are picking up and making sure the children and teenagers have a good understanding of what is taking place.
As a former peacekeeper, I've just recently taken my place alongside the ranks of the Korean and WW2 veterans - it seemed strange at first, but if we don't join their ranks, we will forget.
It's something that I'm concerned about in my own community- many folks here do wonderful and meaningful things for Israel's memorial day (called Yom HaZikaron, the Day of Rememberance), and nothing for America's counterpart holiday. But this year there was an event at one of the synagogues in the area, and many of the shuls encouraged people to go- so that's a start at least.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this. I am amazed at how many people skip any mention of Memorial Day (Or other such patriotic holidays) on their blogs. We take our children to the cemetaries on such days to instill gratitude as well as to help us remember. Thank you!
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