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| Photo credit: http://nationalharbor.com/event/memorial-day/ |
To many Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of Summer. It may also be the National BBQ Day for them too. Let us remember the real meaning of Memorial Day!
My deepest gratitude and remembrance to the men and women who made the highest sacrifice any can make while serving in this country's Armed Forces.
My friend, David Black Mastro, posted this to his Facebook which is apt:
~Simonides, epitaph for the Spartan dead at the Battle of Thermopylae, quoted in Herodotus, "Histories".
"Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passeth by:
Carrying out their orders, here we lie."
Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. Check out this poem by an esteemed poet:
DECORATION DAYMore information:
Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry's shot alarms!
Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon's sudden roar,
Or the drum's redoubling beat.
But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.
All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!
Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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