Say what you mean - and mean what you say.

"HAPPY Memorial Day", people mindlessly chime. But what's so "happy" about it (other than still being here in this hard-earned land of the free)? This is our annual national day of mourning. It's only because of what that day represents - that the rest of the days of the year can become happy holidays.

[INTERMISSION: Appropriate MUSIC VIDEO ]

Instead of using Memorial Day as a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices made by Americans in combat, many Americans misuse the day as a celebration of the beginning of summer and a signal to begin wearing white. WRONG! Rather, our Flag should fly at half mast on that day until Noon -- and the "POW/MIA Flag" as well. This is the fourth year that our "National Moment of Remembrance" is reserved for 3:00 P.M. (local time) on each Memorial Day. [In May 1996, the idea of the "Moment" was born when children touring Washington, DC, were asked what Memorial Day meant. They responded, "That’s the day the pools open!"]

The traditional day of observance of Memorial Day is May 30th -- NOT the last Monday of May. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. (Waterloo, New York, was the birthplace of Memorial Day. On May 5, 1865, the people of Waterloo had honored soldiers who had died in the Civil War.) When Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for us to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day.

To keep the number of three day Federal Holidays the same, Armed Forces Day -- the third weekend of every May --could easily become a three-day holiday. On that holiday we can go out and enjoy and celebrate the freedoms won and maintained by our Armed Forces. On Memorial Day we should once again solemnly reflect upon the high cost of that freedom instead of partying.

Keep in mind that 2004 marks the 60th Anniv. of D-Day when the allied invasion of Normandy begun on June 6, 1944. Also, the formal Dedication Ceremony of the World War II Memorial takes place Saturday, May 29, 2004 on the National Mall between 4th and 7th Streets in Washington, D.C. The World War II Memorial is the first and much belated national memorial dedicated to all who served during the Second World War.

Memorial Day has always had a special significance for me. I was named after my father's younger brother, a US Army Air Force Capt. who was shot down over Europe in WWII.

-- "These heroes are dead. They died for liberty-they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadow of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storm, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars-they are at peace. In the midst of the battles, in the roar of conflicts, they found the serenity of death." ~ (Author Unknown)

Please wear a bloody red poppy to Mass this Sunday. They were our first "yellow ribbons." Proceeds from them benefit our needy servicemen and veterans...


In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae (1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

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Please meditate on this somber MUSIC VIDEO - but prepare to be blown away.