Memorial Day
- How many of us truly know what Memorial Day is and what it stands for? Besides that extra day off, that many of us celebrate it with friends and family. Do you know that today is a day to honor all of those men and women that died while serving in the military. It's not suppose to be a day to honor those men and women that now serve us, but those that gave their lives for us to enjoy the freedom that we have today, as Americans.
Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day and is celebrated on the last Monday of May each year. It's a day for those to go around to the cemeteries to decorate the graves of those that fought and died for our country. One of the traditonal ways to observe this time is a national moment of remembrance that takes place at 3 pm on Memorial Day. Another tradition is to fly the flag of the United States at half staff from dawn until noon. For more information on this great day, Memorial Day, please read : Memorial Day (the picture and some of the information supplied is from Wikipedia)
I was watching the news last night, which I hardly do anymore for several reasons. But they had interviewed this gentleman, Tom Day, who is a retired military officer who started Bugles Across America. What touched my heart the most while watching this interview is that this is a person that feels that our Veterans that died in the military should deserve a live rendition of taps played by a live bugler. What is intriguing about this is that Congress passed legislation stating that Veterans had the right to at least two uniformed military people to fold the flag and play taps on a CD player. Mr. Day wanted to take this a step further.
Overall, this touched me on several issues and I wanted to spread this message to others. My grandfather, James Quinn, fought in World War II and passed away on May 30th, 2003. We had a very nice service for him and even had the bagpipes there. But at the very end, the two in uniform that were there on behalf of the military, had a problem folding the flag. And I was asked to help if I had an idea on how to tuck the end of the flag in, because I had served in the U.S. Army from '86 to '88. At one time, we actually had a quick class on how to tuck the flag of the United States, so I was honored to help. But I commend Tom Day and his organization, to make sure that the men and women who died so courageously for our freedom, that they get the real thing. If anyone has ever been to a funeral to where there is real live taps being played in the background, it sends shivers down your spine. At least it does for me whenever I hear this. And to think that we can just make a small effort in making sure that this is real, for those that died while serving our country, I think it is the least that we can do.
Now, Mr. Day does ask for donations on his site. I know in a struggling economy, this might not be easy. But they also look for volunteers that could actually play Taps on the bugle or a few other instruments while doing the same. His organization now has more than 5,000 buglers that can volunteer acros the Untied States. For more information on this and information that he displays on his site, please go to : Bugles Across America
Part of my passion in writing this was because not only was I inspired to write about this because of Tom Day's desire to give Veteran's a proper and honorable burial, but that I was inspired after reading Missy Caulk's post, What are you talking about around the picnic table. Something that I think many of us don't do as often as we should do. And keeping in mind that this is not Veteran's Day, which is a day to honor and thank all those men and women who served in the military, those living, who died, or those on active duty. Please just keep the focus here and honor all those that died for our country.
Proud to be an AMERICAN
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