Honor Memorial Day together

Maybe it's silly and sentimental to wish we could turn the clock back on Memorial Day. To be nostalgic about small town parades and graveside memorials; for the gratitude and reflection they evoked.

This year, as every year, a small group of dedicated people will attend ceremonies honoring the men and women who lost their lives fighting for our country. They'll be far outnumbered by folks whose Memorial Day observance will be limited to wearing an American Flag T-shirt, or ordering up a red, white and blue Sno Kone as they lounge by the pool.

In fact, the feds estimate that attendance at the Arlington National Cemetery remembrance will be about the same as it was back in 1868, even though there are a lot more of us now. That's probably true, too, for this weekend's countless local observances.

Even the U.S. government's website about the holiday offers safety tips for barbecues, boating and travel alongside links to veterans stories, a list of memorials and monuments and ideas for supporting our troops today.

You can't go back, after all, and you can't really blame overworked families for taking advantage of every long weekend they can get their hands on.

That doesn't necessarily mean we're ungrateful. A lot more of us will reflect on the holiday's meaning this weekend than will attend any organized event. But I think something's lost when we don't honor Memorial Day together.

After all, the men and women we're remembering didn't serve any one of us, but all of us. They served our country and all the good that we stand for. Together.

Still, times have changed, and that's why Congress passed “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” back in 2000, asking that we all pause for a moment of silence at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.

One minute to stop and consider. To be grateful. To think about the values and traditions that make our country and communities so great, so precious, that thousands would give up their lives to defend them.

One minute away from the grill. Away from browsing at the mall. It's something you can do wherever you are. However you're spending this long weekend.

And it means something, I think, not only to reflect on all we've been given, to be thankful for those who've made it possible, but to do so together.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net