0:00 [Music] Who are you? And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to the way to wow shows this special edition in observance of Memorial Day. So, as as I've um worked my way through the calendar on these special editions, uh I think I think I started them about
0:35 a year ago, but this is the first Memorial Day presentation that I've done. Uh I've I've talked about uh Veterans Day. I know for sure. And I'm I don't think I've done Armed Forces Day yet. I'm looking at my calendar here. No, I haven't. But the three holidays are are connected but of course separate. So Veterans Day um celebrates the service of military veterans, those who served in the military. Oops, I always forget to close my email. So we get that dinging in the
1:11 background. Armed Forces Day celebrates those people who are currently serving in the military. So, uh, while Veterans Day would apply to me, Armed Forces Day would not. It would have back in the, uh, 2006 through 2012 time or possibly even through 2022 because I was in the reserves until then. Memorial Day commemorates those who died while serving in the military. And I I I often
1:46 see Memorial Day and Veterans Day conflated. And I I understand that it's, you know, for for people um who are not u super familiar with with the military and military culture. It's it's easy to conflate the two. Um but there are real differences. Memorial Day will never apply to me. I did not uh die uh in in the military and uh when hopefully it's a long time from now as they say I do
2:21 shuffle off this mortal coil it will be as a civilian and so Memorial Day in particular is is a is a special day devoted for for those who there's various ways we say it made the ultimate sacrifice gave their lives for their country gave their lives so that others may live or others may live in freedom. All of these things I think are appropriate ways of thinking about the day. So, as as has been my my practice on these um national uh holidays, I've put together a short
2:56 history of Memorial Day and some readings to help us think about the meaning of the day. So, Memorial Day has its roots in the aftermath of the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. It was the deadliest conflict in United States history with over 620,000 soldiers killed. Now contrast that with World War II where approximately a half a million uh um
3:33 military personnel were killed. Uh World War II went from 1941 to 1945. But it literally encompassed the entire globe. Uh and yet far far fewer uh 80 only 80% less than 80% of the Americans killed in the Civil War were killed in World War II. Now, one of the main reasons was we were fighting brother against brother and so any anytime someone on either side of the battle was of the war was killed, it was an American dying. So this this especially for the time unprecedented loss of life led to a
4:10 grassroots movement to honor the dead and communities across the country began holding springtime tributes to the fallen soldiers decorating their graves with flowers and flags. Uh the cere the the ceremonies oftentimes were spontaneous and local but they shared common themes. mourning of the dead, decorating graves and solemn reflections. And this gave rise to the name decoration day um for uh decoration of of graves uh that was the original
4:47 term for this this observance and and what eventually became Memorial Day. Now, it's it's notable that uh one of the earliest known observances of what came to be known Memorial Day was organized by formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1st, 1865. So, just around the end of of the Civil War. So, um after Confederate forces evacuated a
5:23 prison camp, freed black uh residents um reeried Union soldiers who had been killed and um and then they held a parade and a ceremony to honor them uh as as their liberators. and and this is probably the first Memorial Day commemoration uh in United States history. At the same time, uh Southern Women's Memorial Associations began honoring events to honor the Confederate dead. So these
5:58 these um observances became a tradition deeply rooted in local and regional culture and it also laid the groundwork for broader national observances. So the the sort of official founding of Memorial Day um or the first of as a national holiday I should say. So the first national call for a day of remembrance came from General John A. Logan. He was the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was a Union Veterans Organization. And on May 5th,
6:37 1868, General Logan issued General Order number 11, designating May 30th as a day to decorate the graves of Union soldiers. I'm going to read you general order uh number 11 in in a in a few minutes so you can hear what uh what General Logan said in in this uh declaration. And on the first official declaration day, 5,000 people decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington
7:13 National Cemetery. So from there um by the end of the 19th century decoration day had become a wide had become widely observed in both the north and the south uh who who uh continued to honor their dead in se on separate days. Um after World War I, the holidays meaning was expanded to include all Americans who died in all wars, not just the Civil War. So going back all the way to the American uh war for
7:49 independence. And as the focus of Memorial Days broadened, it also tended to unify the country in this national observance. So um over the next few decades um all of the northern and southern states adopted the day and the name Memorial Day gradually became more common although in fact it wasn't recognized officially by the US government until after World War II. So in
8:25 1967 the the federal government officially named the holiday Memorial Day. Now I I'll note that I it's it's you know it it it seems fantastic from my perspective. I was 7 years old when this happened. So you know it happened during my lifetime. And the following year, Congress passed the Uniform Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, which moved, among other holidays, Memorial Day, from its traditional date of May 30th, to the last Monday in May,
9:02 creating a three-day weekend. And indeed, that was the purpose of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. I won't get on my soap box about it this this uh this show, but uh not not a favorite uh act of mine. Um and the law took effect in 1971 and it made Memorial Day a federal holiday. So, you know, today when we think about Memorial Day, it's marked by ceremonies at military cemeteries, memorial services, parades, and family gatherings. Uh, a central event of the
9:38 day is at the is the National Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery. Uh, where and when the president or the vice president place a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier. If you've never seen that particular memorial, even in a picture, there is always an honor guard uh marching in uh by the the tomb of the unknown soldier. And then in uh 2000, the year 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Re of
10:13 Remembrance and it asks Americans to uh to pause for one minute at 300 p.m. local time to remember those who died in military service. And hopefully that's something that that you can do now since the the the passage of the Uniform Monday holiday act. Uh Memorial Day has gone from being a day of remembrance and decorating graves to becoming kind of the unofficial start of the summer. Many businesses hold sales. I know I've been
10:50 getting text messages all morning from various businesses. Memorial Day sales and and it becomes a day for for barbecues and trips and look I mean the commercialization of it candidly I'm not too fond of but but barbecues and family gettogethers I think are are are lovely and hopefully at those gettogethers there is a few moments taken to remember what what this day is is really about. Um, but there are concerns that uh the commercialization of Memorial Day has uh
11:26 um erased the deeper meaning of the day uh from our culture. And so veterans groups and educators um have been working toward sort of restoring awareness of what the the holiday is is really about, its original purpose through public education and uh commemorative events. So on this uh arguably the 160th Memorial Day, um I'm going to do some readings uh starting with general
12:01 order number 11. Uh that this was the order that uh uh General John Logan uh published um declaring the the the sort of first national observance, if you will. Okay. So, general order number 11, headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868. Number one, the 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the
12:38 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. Two, we are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, of preserving and strengthening
13:15 those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion. What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead who made their breast a barricade between our country and its foe. Their soldier lives were the revy of freedom to a race in chains and their deaths death deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should
13:50 guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanting foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourers. Let no neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have
14:25 forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic. Three. If other eyes grow dull, and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well, as long of the as the light and warmth of life remain to us. Let us then, at the time appointed, gather round their sacred remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of springtime. Let
15:01 us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor. Let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude. The soldiers and sailors widow and orphan four. It is the purpose of the commanderin-chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He
15:39 earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this order and to lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith by order of John A. Logan, commanderin-chief, NP Chipman, agitant general. Now, first of all, I I I hope you'll notice just the the the beauty of the language, the the the stirring words
16:16 that uh General Logan wrote, uh compelling, urging, uh intreating his comrades and all the people of the United States to engage in this remembrance. And so hopefully today, general order number 11 will be our call to observance and and will resonate through the years um and until our time has come to pass off this
16:51 earth. Okay. Next, I'm going to read a letter from Sullivan Belaloo. So, uh, Sullivan Belaloo was a major in the Union Army and he sent this letter to his wife Sarah, uh, one week before he was killed at the first battle of Bull Run. Okay, so here's uh, here's his letter. Headquarters, Camp Clark, Washington DC, July 14, 1861. My very dear wife, indications are very
17:27 strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more. Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure, and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine, oh God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged. And
18:03 my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the revolution. and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt. But my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours and replace them in this life with
18:38 care and sorrows, when after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children. It is weak or dishonorable while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless contest with my love of country. I cannot describe to you my feelings of on this calm summer night when 2,000 men
19:14 are sleeping around me. Many of them enjoying the last perhaps before that of death and I suspicious that death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart amuning with God my country and thee. I have sought most closely and diligently and often in my breast for a wrong motive in this hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles I have often advocated before the people and the name of honor that I love more than I fear death have
19:50 called upon me and I have obeyed. Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains to the battlefield. The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come crowding over me. And I feel most deeply grateful to God and you that I
20:26 have enjoy enjoyed them so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our boys grow up to honorable manhood around us. I know I have but few claims upon divine providence, but something whispers to me, perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar that I shall return to my loved ones
21:01 unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless, how foolish I have often times been. How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness and struggle with all the misfortune of this world to shield you and my children from
21:37 harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight and with sad patience till we meet to part no more. But oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and fit unseen around flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you in the garish day and the darkest night amidst your happiest scenes and glooiest hours.
22:15 Always, always. And if the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath. or the cool or the cool air cools your throbbing temples. It shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me, dear. Think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again. As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember
22:51 me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimst memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers I call God's blessing upon them. Oh Sarah, I wait for you there. Come to me and lead thither my children.
23:26 Sullivan. I don't think there's a more powerful message of love by a a military man to his wife. um and and a greater understanding of the the tension between love of country and love of family and how they can be reconciled. Okay. Next, I'm going to read a poem by Lawrence Bingan called For the Fallen. It was written in in 1914. Uh Lawrence Bingan was a British
24:02 poet and in September of 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I, he wrote this poem to honor the British soldiers who had died in the early battles. And its fourth stanza, beginning, they shall grow not old, be has become an endearing verse of remembrance recited at memorials and services throughout the British Commonwealth. for the fallen. With proud thanksgiving, a
24:37 mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, fallen the cause of the free. Solemn the drums thrill death august and royal. Sing sorrow up into immortal spheres. There is music in the midst of desolation and a glory that shines upon our tears. They went with songs to the battle. They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and a glow. They were staunched to the end against
25:13 odds uncounted. They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will re we will remember them. They mingle not with their laughing comrades again. They sit no more at familiar tables of home. They have no lot in our labor of daytime. They sleep beyond England's foam.
25:49 But where our desires are and our hopes pro But where our desires are and our hopes profound felt as well as a spring that is hidden from sight. To the innermost heart of their own of their own land they are known as the stars are known to the night. As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust moving and marches upon the heavenly plain. as the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness to the end to the end they remain.
26:29 So uh that that poem was published in the the London Times in 1914. Um a newspaper with a huge readership and uh and uh as a result became very well known uh again throughout the British Commonwealth. Okay. Next, I'm going to read perhaps the most famous tribute to fallen uh soldiers, certainly in the United States, uh the Gettysburg Address delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19th,
27:05 1863 at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, following one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War in just 27 72 words, Lincoln redefined the purpose of the war, emphasizing national unity, equality, and the enduring principles of democracy. Four score in seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
27:40 nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
28:15 proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
28:52 dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these honored dead shall not have died in vain. that this nation under God shall
29:30 have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. I I I think it's as fitting a tribute of all who we mourn and remember on Memorial Day to understand that in each war many of those who died were dying for those same
30:05 principles that Abraham Lincoln outlines in his speech. And I I hope on this Memorial Day we will, as Abraham Lincoln suggested, be highly resolved that the dead whom we mourn today shall not have died in vain. We need to um recommmit ourselves to the principles
30:40 that soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen, merchant men have died for this country over over the centuries. Okay. Uh, next I'm going to read In Flanders Field. It was written by Canadian Army physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after he presided over the funeral of a fallen friend during World War I. The
31:15 poem quickly became one of the most famous war memorial verses and it symbolized the sacrifice of soldiers and inspired the use of the red poppy as a remembrance emblem. So in Flanders field, in Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row they mark our place and in the sky the larks still bravely singing fly. Scarce herd amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago
31:53 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 you break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep. though poppies grow in Flanders field. So I I think a a a short but very powerful thought about the passing of
32:31 the torch as as Colonel Mc McCrae uh describes it from one generation or one unit of of soldiers to the next from one generation to the next. Now, a memorial day in my opinion wouldn't be complete without uh a remembrance from God. Um, in this case, I'm going to read uh Psalm 46 and uh I'm reading it from the art
33:07 scroll Tanakh, which is another name for the Hebrew Bible. Um it's the the language is not quite as fa flower flower flowery as the King James uh version. Uh but I think it's it's more understandable to the contemporary mind for the conductor by the sons of Korak on the Alamos. a song. God is a refuge and strength for us, a help in distress, very accessible. Therefore, we shall not be
33:42 afraid. When the earth is transformed and at mountains collapse in the heart of the seas, when its waters raged and are muddied, mountains quake in his majesty, Cellah, a river, its streams will gladden the city of God, the most sacred of the dwellings of the most high. God is in its midst. It shall not falter. God will help it towards mourning. Nations are in turmoil. Kingdoms totter. He has raised his voice. The earth dissolves. God, master of legions, is
34:18 with us. A stronghold for us is the God of Jacob. Silah. Go and see the works of God who has wrought devastation in the land. He causes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He will break the bow bow and cut the spear. He will burn chariots in fire. Desist and know that I am God. I shall be exalted among the nations. I shall be exalted upon the
34:55 earth. God, master of legions, is with us. A stronghold, a stronghold for us is the God of Jacob, Silah. As the Psalms have historically done, they bring us comfort in our mourning. Some of you watching this may have lost a relative in war and your mourning may be deeper than others who have not. For myself,
35:33 um, I never lost someone I was close to in a war. Um, but when I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, one of my chaplain colleagues, an army chaplain was deployed to uh, I believe it was Afghanistan. His convoy was hit by an IED and it stopped to take care of the wounded and he was giving comfort to a wounded Marine or wounded soldier I mean and a sniper um shot him and killed him.
36:11 And uh he had a lovely family uh two little boys. They were at a Passover celebration just a few months before he was killed. And uh so to my chaplain colleague, I I uh I devote this Memorial Day uh observance. So I I want to leave you with this final thought um by someone who if you've watched my any of my shows, you know I um I'm a student of General George Patton. Um, I've studied
36:48 his life and how he uh raised himself from um a child u with a child plagued by dyslexia um and seemingly unable to learn to being um arguably and certainly in my mind the um greatest field commander of of World War II. And uh General Patton said it is foolish and wrong and it is foolish and wrong to
37:24 mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. And indeed, while we mourn our dead, we should be in absolute awe that men like Major Sullivan lived, were willing to give up a happy life with their family, were willing to give up comforts, were willing to risk the battlefield knowing
38:02 that death could very Well, find them in order to keep our nation free, in order to fight for the freedom of our allies, and in order to give our enemies a chance to reform themselves um in a vision and in a way that could potentially help their people to be free. um like like we did with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan most recently. So
38:39 I wish you a meaningful Memorial Day. I hope you will take uh a few minutes with your families unless you happen to be watching this with your families to observe this day. And I thank you very much for joining me and hopefully we'll see you later on in the