Venting My Frustrations About How We Celebrate Memorial Day

This blog will be slightly off topic. Yes, it is historical but it covers much more than Caledonia. Pardon me while I climb on my soapbox for a moment.

Memorial Day, or as it used to be called, Decoration Day goes back almost 150 years. Depending on which account you subscribe to, it was either started by a Union officer' order in 1868 or by southern Ladies in 1863. A sub group claims the Union officer was prodded into the order by his wife. Either way, it was set aside as a day to honor the dead, Union and Confederate, who fought in the Civil War.

It was called Decoration Day for a simple reason; that's what you were supposed to do, decorate graves with flowers.

Over the years, as more wars were fought and more men and women died fighting them, the day was expanded to cover more conflicts. But instead of the day becoming even more poignant and solemn it has become for many only the signal to begin summer activities.

I attended two ceremonies over the weekend. Sunday in Forest Home cemetery in Milwaukee a small group gathered in the rain to remember the men and women who cared for and were patients of the old Milwaukee Soldiers Home (now the Zablocki VA center). only a dozen or so spectators were in evidence. Monday at Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee the turn out was somewhat better, maybe a couple hundred came to have mass with the Archbishop, listen to the First Brigade Band and honor the dead with the SUVCW and Governor Scott Walker.

Now the Milwaukee area has a population of many hundreds of thousands, where were they that morning? I don't think they were putting out flags. In my driving through Caledonia and Milwaukee I made a conscious effort to look for American Flags displayed on homes. My count came back at a dismal 30-35%. Why is it we can afford to have every new electronic gadget that man can devise but can't spend a few dollars on a flag? Why can we go through all the trouble to wait in line for hours or even days for the "hot ticket" but can't take two minutes to put out a flag? Have we really become that shallow and lazy?

Commercial America is no better. Memorial Day is just another "sales event" to them. Just another excuse to have you part with your money. The news media is hardly blameless. On the Monday evening news fully three times the amount of air time was given to boaters on Pewaukee Lake and people at the beach than coverage of area solemn ceremonies.

If you are a Veteran, deceased, wounded or otherwise, I salute you. If you approach Memorial day in the way it was intended, I applaud you. If you fall into the other category, please use this blog as a wake up call and do better next year.