Sunday, May 25, 2008

A Baby Boomer's View of Memorial Day

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember Memorial Day as a time when we remembered the soldiers who fought and died for our country. My Uncle Bob was a WWII veteran. He was one of the lucky ones. He returned home from the war---even though he was shell-shocked. As a child, I didn’t understand the terminology but upon observing my uncle’s subsequent behavior over the years, I knew it had something to do with his inability to cope mentally back into society.

As a baby boomer, I have memories of Vietnam but I never knew anyone who died in the war. As a television reporter stationed at Camp Lejeune, I covered many stories of Marines preparing for Operation Desert Shield & Desert Storm. I covered Memorials and some of the happy homecomings.

On this Memorial Day I have decided I am not going to mourn over the dead. Yes---I will pray for their souls and hope they discovered who God is---but on this particular day I choose to pray for the living. I will pray for the men and women who are in harm’s way daily. I will pray for their safekeeping until they are able to return home to loved ones.

More importantly, I will pray for peace.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, Beverly. We need to honor those who have fallen, and respect those young people who have such a strong commitment to serve their country. Whether we support this war or not, we all pray that the soldiers come home safely and soon. We must not forget about them or push them aside, like the Vietnam War veterans were, forty years ago.