Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Compare the Joe DiMaggios of yesterday to the Alan Iversons of today; entertainers like Nat King Cole to rappers like Snoop Doggy Dog; our nation’s first president George Washington to our previous one, Bill Clinton. So where can parents take their children these days to find real heroes? I have a suggestion.
On this Memorial Day, visit a cemetery.
Throughout the country, Memorial Day ceremonies will honor those combat veterans who died protecting the freedoms we too often take for granted. At these services, we're reminded what this holiday — and real heroism — is all about.
Gather Around Their Sacred Remains
Formerly called Decoration Day, Memorial Day was established in 1868 by General John A. Logan, commander of the Union Army. It was meant, Logan said, to be a day for “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.”
So on May 30 of each year (later changed to the last Monday in May), he proposed that our nation would “at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest of flowers of springtime, and let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor.”
General Logan knew how quickly the losses of war could pass from memory and so proposed a national day of remembrance. “If other eyes should grow dull and other hands slack and other hearts cold in solemn trust,” he said, “ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remains in us.”
Despite Logan’s good intentions, I suspect few people visit the grave of a veteran on this holiday to remember and give thanks. Even fewer attend memorial services, parades or other public events paying homage to fallen members of our armed forces.
Maybe it’s a sign of our times, but it surely doesn’t reflect well on us that such an important and solemn occasion is so lightly regarded. Most people can’t seem to spare the time to honor their defenders, who died in places like Shiloh and Antietam, Normandy and Pearl Harbor, Khe Sanh, Pleiku, and now Kabul. Don’t bother trying to go to a movie that day, though, because theaters will be packed — it’s one of Hollywood’s biggest weekends.
No Greater Love Than This
Ironically, our complacency toward the military stems from its very success. Even with our troops in harm’s way in Afghanistan and other places, the seeming invincibility of our combat forces leads us to take them much for granted.
But this is even more reason to consider why the abundant fruits of freedom are available to us. In great measure, it’s because many Americans answered their nation’s call to duty on behalf of their compatriots — past, present, and future — asking that they now repay their forefathers’ sacrifices with those of their own. To their credit, they responded. To our shame, many of us have forgotten.
Our search for heroes, then, should not begin at the ballpark, on television or at the movies. It should begin at our cemeteries, at the gravesides of those who gave their lives for duty, honor, and country. For the nation that forgets its heroes of yesterday will find none coming forward to defend it tomorrow.
Our Lord tells us that “Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends.” This is just as true today as when He said it two thousand years ago. It may be too late now to thank those who laid down their lives for us, but it's never too late to remember them. Our search for real heroes should begin today.
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