A Day To Honor Our War Dead

Every year, polls show that a large number of Americans don’t know why we celebrate Memorial Day.

According to People, a 2020 Onepoll survey found that fewer than half of the 2,000 people surveyed knew that the purpose of Memorial Day was not to honor those who served in the armed forces, but to honor those who gave their lives while they served.

Few Americans are aware that the original reason for Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War.

Originally called Decoration Day, its purpose was to remember the nearly 500,000 soldiers who died during that incredibly bloody conflict.

That large number becomes especially sobering when you realize that the Civil War claimed roughly half of the 1.1 million service members who gave their lives in all of our conflicts, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Department of Defense.

Consider the cost of our other wars:

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, May 25, the 145th day of 2023. There are 220 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe; Floyd’s death, captured on video by a bystander, would lead to worldwide protests, some of which turned violent, and a reexamination of racism and policing in the U.S.

On this date:

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention began at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum.

In 1946, Transjordan became a kingdom as it proclaimed its new

The American Revolution was a hard-fought battle, but our successful fight for freedom claimed fewer than 1% of the lives of service members than the Civil War claimed — about 6,800 lives.

World War I — the “war to end all wars” — took 120,000 American service members. Regrettably, a lot more war was yet to come.

World War II — what many veterans of the great global conflict called “the Big One” — claimed approximately 405,000 U.S. service members, mostly young people whose lives were just beginning to blossom.

The Korean War, in which my father served, claimed 34,000 U.S. service members — and it’s still not officially over. The Vietnam War claimed 48,000 U.S. service members — again mostly claiming young lives. The pain and loss of that terrible war lingers for millions of families still.

The long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cost the lives of nearly 7,000 service members. It’s a number that would have been higher if not for considerable gains in medical technology that resulted in fewer battlefield deaths.

However, more than 52,000 U.S. service members were wounded in these conflicts and many are still suffering from both physical and mental disabilities — and higher than normal suicide rates.

We must never forget those who gave their lives serving the rest of us. But too many of us are forgetting to

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In 1961, President John F. Kennedy told Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, ordered the Virginia county to reopen its public schools, which officials had closed in an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation ruling.

In 1968, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis was dedicated by Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall.

In 1977, the first “Star Wars” film was released by 20th Century Fox.

In 1979, 273 people died when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham Q: The church today seems much the same as the world. What does it mean to take up the cross of Christ, and would this make the church stronger? — B.D.

A: While our nation is seeing an increase of crime, immorality, adultery, drunkenness, irreverence, infidelity, and open apostasy, millions of professing Christians have forgotten the Scripture that says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).

Jesus regarded His followers as a select company who belonged to a different world. Many of the religious people of His day dressed in religious garb that belonged to this world — a world ruled by the prince of darkness, a world dominated by pride, ambition, hate, jealousy, greed, and falsehood. Jesus warned the disciples to be loyal to His teachings and principles. He told them that do just that. just after takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. they were to set their affection on things above. He also warned them that they would find things exceedingly difficult.

PBS News Hour offers a partial explanation as to why.

During the Civil War, almost every American family suffered loss. The 500,000 Union and Confederate deaths accounted for about 2% to 2.5% of the total population.

During World War II, according to Census Bureau and Department of Defense data, about 12 percent of the total U.S. population were members of the armed forces — and everyone else at home was making sacrifices to support the war effort.

Today, however, fewer than 1% of our population serves or has served, which makes it easier for most of us to remain aloof from military actions.

But we should be aware. War really is hell and it should be the absolute last resort for our nation to take.

We must hold our political leaders to account and stop them from so willingly getting us into new conflicts that will result in more service members giving the ultimate sacrifice.

So before we focus on our Memorial Day weekend parades and picnics, we must remember to honor those who have given their lives for our country.

And we must never forget the true meaning of Memorial Day.

The writer is an author and columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Copyright 2023 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

In 2008, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Red Planet to begin searching for evidence of water; the spacecraft confirmed the presence of water ice at its landing site.

In 2011, a judge in Salt Lake City sentenced street preacher Brian David Mitchell to life in prison for kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart, who was 14 at the time of her abduction in 2002.

In 2016, actor Johnny Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, filed for divorce in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences after 15 months of marriage.

In 2020, a white woman, Amy Cooper, called 911 to claim she was being threatened by “an African American man,” Christian Cooper, who had confronted her for walking her dog without a leash in New York’s Central Park.

Refusing to conform to worldly principles and practices and living under the lordship of Christ, they became marked men. He told them that the world would hate them. They could not make their light shine by sinking to a worldly level. It was only by abiding in Christ and living under the ruling power of His Holy Spirit that the world could be elevated.

It was this very reason that the distinction between the lives of those who lived for this world and those who lived for Christ was so clear. It made a deep impression on a godless society, and countless people embraced the Christian faith because those who followed Jesus outthought, outlived, and out loved their neighbors. Christians should dare to be different. The power and progress of Christian society depends on its likeness to Jesus Christ.