Memorial Day

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day.  The first Decoration Day was held 3 years after our war, the Civil War.  

The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

The first large observance was held at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.  It was a day of coming together, as one nation, to mourn those we had lost.

Alexandrea  VA Memorial Cemetary

Lexington Cemetery

Springtime, wartime, France WWI

Arlington National Cemetery

Belgium Memorial Cemetery

We have our dead strewn about the world, some in proud graves, some lost in the tired shuffling march of war.  How does one teach the children to honor the soldier, living and dead, but not the war?

Chattanooga TE

Heartbreak Ridge

Desert Storm

In February of 2003, there was to be a little poetry celebration in the White House Rose Garden, hosted by Laura Bush.  They were to discuss Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes. Some chose not to attend as their statement of 'support' to the warmongering powers of the day.  Others, like Others, such as Copper Canyon Press founder Sam Hamill, decided to take the opportunity to make a direct political statement against the war.

"I believe the only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam," wrote Hamill in an email forwarded among poets on the Net, which is now posted on the Web site created to publish the anti-war poems he received in response, Poetsagainstthewar.org.
http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/

The Symposium was cancelled thus taking Laura Bush into the realm of denying free speech.  And sparking a movement.  After all, she only wanted poets to explore the American Voice. Now, she’s got an earful of it, and its volume is growing.

Where Does Peace Start?
by Judy Puckett

He looked me in the eye
And then he told me his heart
He said I cry like you cry
And I'm afraid of the dark
He said I'd like to put this gun down
And go home today
But it seems
That war won't go away.
He said, I bleed like you bleed
And it tears me apart
I need to know,
Where does peace start?
He said I cry like you cry
As I watch your flag fly
He looked me in the eye
and he told me his heart
And then he said,
Where does peace start?