Memorial Day replaced Decoration Day after WW1. Historian David Blight pointed out that while the tradition of Memorial Day may have caught on after the 1868 Arlington National Cemetery ceremony, freed slaves decorated soldiers’ graves even earlier, on May 1, 1865, in Charleston, S.C. On May 5, 1868, John Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the major Union Army veterans association, issued a proclamation from his Washington, D.C. office telling Americans to celebrate “Decoration Day” on May 30. He urged them to decorate Civil War graves with the “choicest flowers of springtime.”
“Cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead,” Logan said in a speech at the 1868 event, “who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes… We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance.”
The event became an annual tradition, and the name shifted as decades passed and the United States fought in more wars. Congress made May 30 a national holiday in 1889. After World War I and World War II, Memorial Day became the more common name for the occasion than Decoration Day to honor the veterans of all U.S. armed conflicts. For example, in a May 22, 1950, proclamation, President Harry Truman described Memorial Day as an occasion that “has long been set aside for paying tribute to those who lost their lives in war.” And in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill into law designating the day ‘Memorial Day’ and dating it the last Monday in May.
Few Americans honor the dead unless they lost someone in conflict. Usually it is a time to have fun. This perhaps offers some insight as to why the USA is able to wage war so frequently. No one gives a damn. After all, 1.3 million soldiers have died fighting for America’s owners. No big deal. A swollen “Defense” Budget is a big deal: On March 28, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Budget request of $813.3 billion for national defense. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 the Budget request is $842 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD.
No big deal in gifting money for more murder and gifting money to Defense Contractors who would be homeless like an old hobo who fought in Vietnam without it. Sometimes the overwhelming cognitive dissonance of my fellow citizens is too much for my heart and I lapse into a great despair. Union jobs aside there is as Country Joe reminds us in his Fish Cheer “plenty of money to be made supplying the Army with the tools of the trade.”
In year 3 of Covid and the war on viruses that do not exist I suspect more than 1.3 million will die and then I wonder if some Surgeon General weeping on TV proclaims Covid Remembrance Day asking people to celebrate heroic frontline health workers and the hard work put in to save lives and honor the dead. Maybe the Surgeon General will ask Americans to thank doctors with flowers, flowers that have a deep, clear, indigo blue cluster at the top of very erect stems, a nice contrast with the dark green leaves, a wild flower that will grow quickly, bloom heavily, and then die with frost. The Chinese forget me not will grow in sun or light shade in all regions of North America and doubtlessly will be ideal.
https://ko-fi.com/thejournaloflingeringsanity
The declining % of Americans serving in the military is probably a big reason for the lackadaisical attitude that many Americans have toward the military and the propensity of the U.S. to engage in war for little or no reason (other than corruption). Less than one-half of one percent of the population is in active duty military service. That seems likely to decrease in the future, while most of our political leaders apparently believe that we need to rush to war. Such a waste of human and financial treasure!
Loved your piece and The Chinese Forget Me Not. Strange to celebrate a day for honor for those who died fighting for freedom when your govenment just tried to kill you.