MEMORIAL DAY
 
milspeak memo V3.05-25-09 memorial day “on monday, may 25, 2009, americans everywhere will enjoy yet another Memorial Day holiday. However you decide to spend this memorable day, please take a moment to give thanks to all veterans, including those americans that are still listed as MIA. Let them hear you say, ‘You are not forgotten.’” Harry Parmer, Vietnam Veteran, from his Memorial Day post to the mcws blog photo courtesy of Robert’s Blog TEN FACTS ABOUT MEMORIAL DAY BY DAVID HOLZEL FOR CNN.COM “On May 30, 1868, President Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery -- which, until 1864, was Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's plantation. Some 5,000 people attended on a spring day which, The New York Times reported, was "somewhat too warm for comfort." The principal speaker was James A. Garfield, a Civil War general, Republican congressman from Ohio and future president. “‘I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on this occasion,’ Garfield began, and then continued to utter them. ‘If silence is ever golden, it must be beside the graves of fifteen-thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem the music of which can never be sung.’ It went on like that for pages and pages. “As the songs, speeches and sermons ended, the participants helped to decorate the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.” From David Holzel’s “Ten Facts About Memorial Day” THOUGHTS FOR MEMORIAL DAY: THE HOUSE NO ONE LIVED IN BY TOM SHEEHAN “War, in its demand for enlistment, called them, young and exuberant in their outlook and it was in the next week they gathered in the clubhouse, the house nobody lived in, and made their plans to help save the world.” From Tom Sheehan’s “Thoughts for Memorial Day: The House No One Lived In” THE JOYS AND PERSONAL PRICES WE PAY IN MILITARY SERVICE BY JACK HAYES HYMN BY CHARLOTTE M. BROCK “My back still to them, I heard them unzip the bag. I took a breath, made a final decision – be not afraid – and turned around. I was looking at dirty combat boots; then cammie pants, a blouse. I forced myself to look at his face. He was dead.” From Charlotte M. Brock’s “Hymn” BIRD-DOG HAIKU BY A.L. SYOR PLUS what we remember  END OF POST http://milspeakcreativewritingseminars.blogspot.com/http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2007/05/memorial_day_tr.phphttp://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/25/mf.holiday.memorial.day/houseV3-5-25-09.htmlhttp://www.milspeak.org/TomHome2.htmjoysV3-5-25-09.htmlhymnV3-5-25-09.htmlbirddogV3-5-25-09.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGd_E69ocg&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGd_E69ocg&feature=relatedshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8
a day late and a dollar...