From This Corner
By Ginger Costen
If you’ve read my column before you know that I like to view life with a sense of humor. There really is truth to the old saying that “Life is too short to sweat the small stuff and most everything is small stuff.”
However, this past month I’ve been working on the story about the 23 war/veteran’s monuments in Webster. I’m sorry but I’m finding it hard to have a sense a humor about this subject. I can’t find the “small stuff” in knowing these people died so that I could have the freedom to write this column and you could have the freedom to read it.
I was heartsick reading on the White House Commission on Remembrance website that when asked “what is Memorial Day” most children today answer, “The day the pool opens so we can go swimming.” When young adults answered the same question they replied, “The beginning of summer.”
Granted, most adults know it’s a day we honor the dead… but not everyone who has died. No, it’s a day we honor the men and women who died while in combat duty for their country – our country – the United States of America.
Whether they died in the Civil War or Iraq… they died for freedom and equality. They died so the color of a person’s skin did not make one a slave and the other a master. They died so that so we could have the freedom to believe in God and to worship Him in any religion or manner that we believe to be the best way for us as an individual or group. They died so that women – and all law abiding citizens - could be considered and treated equally.
Gone are the Memorial Days that were filled with the purpose and value of the occasion. Gone are the big parades and celebrations honoring those who made this day happen. Instead of a celebration it’s become a sale-a-bration.
I’m not advocating that we close every business and have a parade that would rival Macy’s on Thanksgiving Day. But what I am asking is for each of us to remember. Remember the true meaning of this day....