Editorial: Our responsibility on Memorial Day
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the May 2, 2016, Stamford Advocate.
If children are confused about the meaning of Memorial Day, that’s on us.
Collectively, we have not been the best stewards of the most somber of our national holidays. As time sweeps further from its origins in the wake of the Civil War — and its declaration as a federal holiday on May’s last Monday during the Vietnam War — it has been reduced to a synonym for the dawn of summer. Even that characterization is wildly wrong, as the season won’t begin until June 20.
Even the history of the holiday is muddy. More towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day than the birthplace of baseball. Much of this is apocryphal.