Shelter Island Reporter Editorial: Lest we forget
It’s not news to say we associate our holidays with material things and comforts rather than what they were intended to mean when inaugurated.
Memorial Day and its summer bookend, Labor Day, have struggled to keep their original meanings. Memorial Day has recovered some of its essence because of a younger generation remembered for their service and sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan these last, long, bloody 13 years.
Officially sanctioned ceremonies for remembering the war dead go back at least as far as Homer and are present in every culture. The genesis of our own Memorial Day is murky, with many different places in the country claiming to be the first to officially memorialize dead soldiers. Officially, our Memorial Day came about 148 years ago this month when a military order came down to place flowers on both the Union and Confederate dead at Arlington National Cemetery. It was known originally as Decoration Day.
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural speech gave the country direction in the aftermath of the Civil War, and a clue to how future generations should act: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive … to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan …”
It’s been said that a society should be judged on how it treats its oldest and youngest citizens. One more judgment call should be on how veterans are treated.
Great steps have been made when it comes to employment for veterans during the second Obama administration. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate “for veterans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces at any time since September 2001 — a group referred to as Gulf War-era II veterans — declined by 1.4 percentage points over the year to 5.8 percent in 2015. The jobless rate for all veterans, at 4.6 percent, also declined from a year earlier.”
Still, unemployment for many veterans means the bottom has fallen out. The administration has worked to cut hopelessness among vets. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “in 2009, the Obama Administration committed to ending veteran homelessness … by the end of 2015. Since 2010, there has been a 33 percent decrease in the number of homeless veterans.”
Good news, but cold comfort — literally — to the vets still on the streets.
We’re lucky here, for many reasons, and one is that Shelter Island hasn’t forgotten what the day at this crossroad of seasons signifies for us and for the veterans and their families among us.
Come to the parade Monday, and enjoy the beginning of summer with a free barbecue provided by the American Legion and the Lions Club. Remember all who served, especially those who died wearing American uniforms, and their families who carry on bravely.
