{"id":1645,"date":"2008-05-26T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2008-05-26T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2008-05-26T18:16:34","modified_gmt":"2008-05-26T22:16:34","slug":"memorial-day-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/26\/memorial-day-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While Memorial Day began as a memorial for Civil War veterans. It has become more of a holiday weekend that opens the summer season. It is celebrated with backyard barbecues, outdoor picnics, and parades but few take the time to remember the reasons for the day.<\/p>\n

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868<\/a>, the head of an organization of Union veterans \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taps<\/strong>
\nMost Scouts have become familiar with the playing of Taps, but not all where it came from:<\/p>\n

The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America \u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond<\/p>\n

The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies. Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services and is still used to signal \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lights out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Day Is Done,
\nGone the Sun,
\nFrom the Earth,
\nFrom the Hill,
\nFrom the Sky,
\nAll Is Well,
\nSafely Rest,
\nGod Is Nigh<\/p>\n

From Ronald Reagan’s remarks at Memorial Day Ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. May 1982<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.<\/p>\n

Yet, we must try to honor them — not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we — in a less final, less heroic way — be willing to give of ourselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Memorial Day began as a memorial for Civil War veterans. It has become more of a holiday weekend that opens the summer season. It is celebrated with backyard barbecues, outdoor picnics, and parades but few take the time to remember the reasons for the day. Three years after the Civil War ended, on May…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe0C4-qx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nyoatrader.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}