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Remember these, your sons and daughters

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  • Originally published May 23, 2008 at 7:43 p.m., updated May 23, 2008 at 7:43 p.m.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

Long ago, they called it Decoration Day, a time set aside each year to decorate the graves of those who had fallen in battle.

The earliest observances of what is now Memorial Day seem to have taken place before the end of the U.S. Civil War, when Confederate widows placed flowers on the resting places of their honored dead.

This tradition and these honors must never be allowed to pass from our consciousness.

We must remember.

When President Lincoln stood at the battlefield at Gettysburg, he made this commitment in the name of all Americans: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain....”

His words, which he predicted would not be long remembered, have instead been permanently seared into American history, there to remain as long as this republic stands.

On Memorial Day, we honor all veterans of the armed services, but it is set aside especially for those who fell from the ranks on land, sea, and in the air.

That fact even clearer this year, because of the recent burial of two soldiers right here in our midst.

No American can walk the rows of the military cemeteries from Vicksburg, Miss., to the Punch Bowl on Oahu, or ponder the rows of crosses in Flanders Field or right here in South Texas, without welling with a combination of grief and pride in what our troops have done for us.

We ask that you take time today, amid the barbecues and the beach parties and the baseball games, to remember once again those who made your way of life possible.



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