Is it time to sound ‘Taps’ on patriotism?
Old holidays never die. They just fade away, as seemed to happen Monday in Marion.
Once upon a time, Memorial Day was among our most solemn observances, honoring members of the military who made the ultimate sacrifice — their lives — to defend the freedoms that allow the rest of us to do such things as revel in a day off at the start of vacation season.
Sixty years ago on Memorial Day, Main St. in Marion was lined with flags, carefully placed on every utility pole by volunteers who installed them just after sunrise and removed them just before sunset lest they violate the U.S. Flag Code by remaining posted, forgotten, overnight.
As a child, I felt honored to have been asked to ride in the back of a pickup truck and help honor the sacrifice of fallen veterans by making a minor sacrifice of my own time to install and remove Old Glory.
Then it was off to S. 4th St. to gather, despite school being out for more than a few days, to march with the high school band from there to the Luta Creek bridge, where a ceremony decorated the waters with a wreath in honor of those lost at sea.
After that, it was a trip across town to the cemetery for prayer, a sermon, a firing squad, and “Taps” — played by a real trumpeter, not someone with a tape recorder inside a fake bugle — before gathering across the street in Marion Elementary School’s multipurpose room for a reception with as many as 100 others.
Weather didn’t cooperate this year. The day was cold and drenched — but hardly as cold and drenched with self-interest as the hearts of many in the community.
There were no flags on Main St., just banners left over from high school graduation two weeks earlier. Volunteers no longer tend downtown flags. City employees do. Most seemed to remember that Monday would be a day off, but none seemed to remember that flags traditionally were put out to honor fallen veterans.
Across town, other flags were flying, of course, but only two — at the courthouse and the post office — had been lowered, as required by the holiday, to half-staff. Flags at the city building, the police station, the senior center, a downtown church, and various residences around town hung at full staff, dripping with rain and looking as ignored and bedraggled as the holiday itself.
There was no band, no parade. With school concluded, the only burden students apparently could bear was to show up later in the week for a two-day track meet. A 15-minute parade was out of the question.
It also was too much of a burden to assemble a firing squad from among Marion’s veterans, who still have time to operate a bar. Members of Florence’s American Legion post tried to come to the rescue, but rain forced cancellation of their visit (though a handful still showed up), and the reception that normally followed was canceled years ago.
Declining interest in Memorial Day is yet another tradition dying for generational reasons. The further we get from having personal memory of those who gave their lives in the defense of freedom, the less important their sacrifices seem to become in the minds of Americans.
A recent survey of 2,000 Americans found that just 27% of Gen Z respondents (those born between 1997 and 2012) could correctly identify what Memorial Day was supposed to honor. Among millennials (born between 1981 and 1996), only 38% could. The percentage among all age groups was higher, 48%. We can only imagine that 100% of the Greatest Generation (born between 1901 and 1927) would have known. After all, they lived through World War II, and the sacrifice of others was something they personally could recall.
At a time when many Americans are clamoring to rid the country of people who come here from other nations in hope of finding freedom and liberty, we as a people seem so obsessed with reveling in those rights that we all too often forget those who died to make sure we could enjoy them.
Holidays aren’t intended to be just more vacation days. They’re supposed to remind us of important events and sacrifices.
It’ll never be adopted as a law, but imagine making it a condition that to take a holiday off you’d actually have to spend at least a few minutes of that day honoring what the holiday observes.
Up next on the smorgasbord of time off will be Flag Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Labor Day. It’s doubtful flags will be installed on Main St. for those holidays, but they might remain after being installed not for patriotic reasons but to prepare for something like Chingawassa Days.
To be sure, not everyone ignored Memorial Day this year. Volunteers erected an avenue of flags at the cemetery, and veterans’ tombstones all were decorated with U.S. flags. Those responsible are to be commended for what I imagine were herculean efforts to find enough volunteers.
The rest of us need to ponder whether being patriotic or possessing a green card or birth certificate are the most appropriate standards to qualify us to continue to benefit from the hard-won freedoms of the United States.
— ERIC MEYER