Expanding Our Remembrances on Memorial Day

On Memorial Day, we pause in remembrance of those who have died in service to their beloved country in the U.S. military. The observance was established in the aftermath of the Civil War. Originally referred to as “Decoration Day,” it became a tradition to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with brightly colored and scented flowers.

The initial nationwide ceremonial was held on May 30, 1868. It was established by Major General John A. Logan of the Army of the Republic. Local commemorations, however, were held prior to the larger statewide observances.

Formerly enslaved people held one of the earliest memorials on May 1, 1965, in Charleston, South Carolina to honor Union prisoners of war who died in custody and were thrown into a mass grave by Confederate officials. At this commemoration, people reinterred them into a proper single grave site for each individual. They then spread flowers on the graves followed by a community parade.

Local communities in both the North and South began holding annual decoration days in 1866. One hundred years later, in 1966, the federal government officially established Waterloo, New York, as the origin of the holiday. We can speculate why the government did not recognize Charleston, South Carolina as the first site in 1865.

In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs locates the idea of a formal, annual date back to Mary Ann Williams of Columbus, Georgia. And the first sanctioned wide-ranging observance of Decoration Day was held at Arlington National Cemetery, May 30, 1868, on which both Union and Confederate graves were decorated with flowers. This established the precedent for a national day of remembrance.

The United States Congress in 1971 enlarged the day to honor all military service members who died in any U.S.-involved conflict by passing the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which officially designated Memorial Day as the last Monday in May.

Individuals and groups who stand up and put their lives on the line to defend their country from very real threats to our national security, as do those in our nation’s military, are true patriots.

I hope, though, that we also remember and commemorate, the diplomats and the mediators, those working in conflict resolution, the activists dedicated to preventing wars and to bringing existing wars to diplomatic resolution once they have begun, the individuals of conscience who refuse to give over their minds, their souls, and their bodies to armed conflict, the practitioners of non-violent resistance in the face of tyranny and oppression, the anti-war activists who strive to educate their peers, their citizenry, and, yes, their government to the perils of unjustified and unjust armed conflict and incursions into lands not their own in advance of appropriate attempts at diplomatic means of resolving conflict.

In addition to our brave and selfless military personnel, true patriots are also those who speak out, stand up, and challenge our governmental leaders, those who put their lives on the line by actively advocating for justice, freedom, and liberty through peaceful means.

Looking over the history of humanity, it is apparent that tyranny, at times, could only be countered through the raising of arms. On numerous occasions, however, diplomacy has been successful, and at other times, it should have been used more extensively before rushing to war.

I find it unacceptable when one’s patriotism and one’s love of country is called into question when one advocates for peaceful means of conflict resolution, for it is also an act of patriotism to work to keep our brave and courageous troops out of harm’s way, and to work to create conditions and understanding that ultimately make war less likely.

I hope we can also at least remember on Memorial Day the abolitionists, the suffragists, the union organizers, the leaders of our great social movements in civil and human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, disability rights, immigration rights, youth and elder rights, rights of working class and poor people, religious rights, and others who have perennially striven to make the United States a “more perfect union.”

On Memorial Day, let us expand our definition of “patriot” while we remember and honor all of those serving our country.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is author of Responding, Teaching, and Learning Race & LGBTQ Topics as Acts of Resistance in a Declining Democracy: An Activists’ Guide

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