The Forgotten Day

USGN article
by Terry Franklin
May 1999

At the end of this month is an almost forgotten national holiday — Memorial Day. Most people know it better as the weekend of the Indianapolis 500. But there was a time when this holiday held more significance...and still does for a generation of people. In fact, before it was called by its current name, it used to be known as Commemoration Day throughout the South. It was a time when people visited the local cemetery to remember...

We now have a whole generation that has never experienced a full-blown war effort. The Persian-Gulf war really doesn't count because there was virtually no resistance, i.e. hardly any lives were lost.

But how many of you remember a time when churches prayed every Wednesday night "for our boys in uniform" — when real life people, folks you knew, gave their lives for this country? Those brass plaques in the foyers of many of our churches commemorated REAL people who gave their lives for this country. WE MUST NOT FORGET THEIR SACRIFICE! And the sacrifice of their families.

I remember, growing up in the sixties, hearing the "body count" from the Vietnam War each night on the TV. That had a sobering effect on this nation...even making many question why we were there in the first place.

We must remember that there is a price to pay for liberty. Men and women gave their lives-- not for Big Macs and Nintendo, but for a way of life that eclipses all of those peripheral things.

Is it any wonder that the teenager with the nose-ring can't understand the tears of the old man with the VFW cap on. He wonders, "Why does this old, wrinkled-faced man salute the flag as it passes by?" Maybe he remembers something many have forgotten...

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©1999 Terry & Barbi Franklin.