May 29, 2005

Rev. Henry Ticknor
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley

Looking Back...Looking Forward

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us! The unofficial start of another summer season. Nancy left yesterday morning to spend the weekend with her North Carolina family and reports that she had a wonderful time getting to know all the others thousands of drivers stuck in the parking lot we sometimes call interstate 95.

Here in Stephens City, the annual Newtown celebration is in full swing and the massive motorcycle rally known as Rolling Thunder is passing over the memorial bridge in D.C. and for lots of folks this weekend marks the opening of community swimming pools. Everyone is gearing up for summer, for vacations, for summer jobs, and if nothing else, after this deliciously cools spring, for warm weather.

But, of course, Memorial Day has another meaning besides the day that summer officially begins on our seasonal calendar of events. It is also a day set aside to honor those who have died in the service of their country.

The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in our nation's wars: "Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men."

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans -- the Grand Army of the Republic-- 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.

Gen. Logan's order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 "with the choicest flowers of springtime" urged: "We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic....

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledge to aid and to assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge upon the Nation's gratitude -- the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After many speeches by the various dignitaries, children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home and members of the Grand Army of the Republic made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last monday in May Confederate Memorial Day and this year there are observances in Fredericksburg and Lynchburg.

Today this nation is at war in Iraq. For me, this year's observance of Memorial Day is more difficult than some. As a nation we are engaged in a war of questionable purposes which has put many UUs in the antiwar camp. Since the Viet Nam Era, many UUs have had difficulty in reconciling their largely liberal values with this nation's path toward nation building and the use of violence to achieve geo-political goals.

When I look at the faces of the young men and women taken from us in the fullness of life I am unable to find credible answers to the question, "Why?" Whys is this war necessary? Why is violence such an easy choice for some and so abhorrent to others. Why does this nation seem to glorify military might?

I suppose answers like national interest, globalization, new world order, oil, democracy all have some validity and their place in our country's political and economic interests, But none of those reasons seems equal to the cost of human lives. Since the war began there have been almost 1650 fatalities.

The Washington Post periodically prints the pictures of these men and women who have lost their lives. I look at the faces first and their ages second. I look at the pictures of young men and women posing with all the confidence and self-assuredness that they can muster. And then I read their ages: 21, 18, 32, 45 and I ask myself, "Why?" And I don't have an answer.

I don't have an answer for Lael Lovell, a young woman whose picture appeared on the front page of yesterday's Washington Post holding her 23-month-old son Colin. Lael's boy friend and Colin's father was killed in action when his vehicle struck an explosive device in Karabilah, Iraq. Nor do I have any answers for the 21-to-24 thousand Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives since the war began in 2003.

On this Memorial Day my prayers are for all of these families ravaged by war. On this Memorial Day, I pray that these families will be able to come to peace with their losses and just as I look back to honor the dead from all wars; I look forward to a time of peace.

It is a custom in many churches on the Sunday before Memorial Day to read "In Flanders Fields". So, before I invite you to come forward to light candles of remembrance let me share these words written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian surgeon serving in WW I. He wrote the memorable lines after the death of a good friend: Here are his words:

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.

The legacy of Memorial Day is poignantly clear: all life is precious, and our Remembrance of it ought to serve our connectedness, not our conflicts.

And, with that in mind, I have come to believe that honoring those dead in the wake of armed conflict is both essential and that it is a mighty and powerful prayer for peace. When we look back at the conflicts that this country has endured we are also looking forward to a time when as the peace movement of the 60's put it, war will be no more.

We are looking back with appreciation, thankfulness, and love; at the same time we are looking forward with hope, with faith in humanity and with the conviction that all people deserve to live out their lives in the peaceful pursuit of life, liberty and justice. Let this Memorial Day be such a day. A day of looking back and a day of looking forward.

Amen and Blessed be.

I know invite you to come forwarding starting with the back rows.