Memorial Day services planned for Monday
Events are set for Memorial Day across the county.
American Legion Edwin Hardy Post 9 will host Memorial Day services in Cameron at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 27, at the War Memorial at the northeast corner of the Milam County Courthouse lawn.
The speaker for this event will be Milam County District Attorney Bill Torrey, who served as an Army Ranger.
Representatives of the American Legion, the American Legion Auxiliary, and VFW Post 2010 will place wreaths at the Memorial during this ceremony. Music will be provided by the Communities in Concert Band.
Post 9 plans to honor our war dead with the Seven Bells Ceremony. Please join for this moving tribute to the veterans of Milam County who have fallen in battle.
For information call Jim McKimmey at (254) 482-0834.
The Meaning of Memorial Day
All too often around Memorial Day we tend to forget exactly why the holiday was created: to honor those American men and women who died during combat.
The holiday, instituted in 1866 in the wake of the Civil War, was first known as Decoration Day. It was set aside to remember both Union and Confederate soldiers alike.
More Americans were lost during the Civil War (620,000) than died in both World Wars combined (521,000). Factor in the differences in population and you can imagine how hard of a hit the war between the north and the south was on the country itself.
By the 1880s, the holiday came to be known officially as Memorial Day. A federal mandate in 1971 set the observance on the last Monday of May. This ensured long weekends for those of us lucky to have the day off to grill, travel, visit with friends and family, and do whatever else we want on Memorial Day. Given that it’s also the traditional beginning of the summer season, there seems to be some confusion by the general public over what the holiday honors.
To put it simply, Memorial Day is for the American troops who didn’t get to come back home and drink a beer at a homecoming party or retire from their branch of service quietly. They died in the field of combat and instead returned home under solemn circumstances, inside flag-draped coffins.
Veteran’s Day and Armed Forces Day, by contrast, both honor those among us who have served or are still serving in the military. On those days -- and of course not just those days -- we reach out to vets and current military members and thank them for wearing the uniform and facing grave danger.
Memorial Day is reserved for those who can’t return a smile or a salute, not to mention the families and friends who have been left behind. That’s probably why so many people bristle at big business using the weekend to hawk special sales and discounts.
In December 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law the National Moment of Remembrance Act saying that Americans should pause at 3 p.m. each Memorial Day and take a moment to remember the fallen. This usually comes right when some of us are spending time with our families, so set a reminder on your smartphone if you want to take a minute to think about what, and who, we have lost.
Fly your American flags at half-staff until noon on Memorial Day and remember those who didn’t come home.