Monday, May 28, 2012

What Memorial Day Is Really About

Commentary: What Memorial Day Is Really About

One Beverly Hills resident asks us to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day in the first place.

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Commentary submitted by Beverly Hills resident George Vreeland Hill.

Here is a letter my father wrote about Memorial Day and those who died serving this great country.
My dad served in the 1950s and never forgot those many heroes.
His name: George V. Hill, Sr.
He died in 2007 just seven months after he wrote this.
He never lived in Beverly Hills.
I guess I was the lucky one there.
Here is his letter:

Monday we celebrate Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day. To my mind, this is not a day of celebration, but a day of solemn remembrances of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the name of freedom.

It seems to me that Memorial Day has lost much of it's meaning while we talk about department store shopping sprees, visits to the mall and outdoor picnics, all of course fitting and proper for any day of fun, but not for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is a day to hang out our flag and to hear speeches honoring our brave soldiers from all wars, from Valley Forge and Gettysburg to D-Day and Corregidor, and to the present-day conflict in the Middle East.

True Americans have always answered the call of duty. We fight for mom, the flag and apple pie—in other words—for freedom and a way of life we all cherish and love. I think of the brave airmen who flew the war-torn skies over Europe in their Super Fortresses, risking all to keep America free, many of them never returning, some under crosses in faraway lands.

If these and other brave men and women who fought could speak from their graves, they might say to us today: "Enjoy the day, but please remember us. After all, it truly is our day."

-George V. Hill, Sr.

Submitted for my dad by George Vreeland Hill
Beverly Hills Resident 

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What Memorial Day Is Really About

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