The Day of Memory of the Fallen

a commemoration

Beginning of the week before last was the American holiday of Memorial Day.   From the time of the Civil War, Americans began observing this holiday to honor and mourn those who had died while serving in the military during the war.   It was called Decoration Day.   Since shortly after the war, the commemorations were held on the second to last day of May; it was moved to the last Monday in May a half century ago.

In the late 20th century, it became more common to call it by its current name.   And Memorial Day was declared to be its official name by federal law in 1967.

The following year—52 years ago today—Senator Robert Kennedy died after having been shot the day before.   Two months earlier, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot to death.   We now bring to memory the lives and deaths of every American, whether in uniform or not, who has fallen while endeavoring to defend and to further our freedom and while striving to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

And with the death this Memorial Day on the Minneapolis pavement, we may reflect on all who have lost their lives at the hands of and with the complicity of those entrusted with the sacred duty of protecting them and may further reflect on our own docile and deferential acquiescence.

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