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By Liz Quirin

Remembering Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is coming soon, heralding the beginning of summer and (we wish) lazy days at a favorite fishing hole, maybe golf course or swimming pool. However, the reason for the observance must be remembered first and foremost. As a child, I remember trekking around to cemeteries with my mother, grandmother, sister and a few other relatives, visiting the graves of departed relatives, some so old, I had a hard time
understanding why on earth we were there. Sometimes we found ourselves in somebody’s
corn field where a small cemetery had been marked off years ago, with soldiers buried
there who had fought on this soil more than 100 years ago.

Wars these days are fought on foreign soil where other flags fly along with the stars and stripes. It is on those lands that our newest members of those to be remembered on Memorial Day are enrolled. Whether we question the wisdom or the justice of the war, we can not withhold our support from military men, women and their families. They give up more than anyone can ever imagine in the name of patriotism.

On one of my international treks more than a few years ago, I was standing in front of the American embassy in Zagreb, Croatia. The American flag was flying, and I thought this would be a good photo. Someone from Croatia that was escorting the group with whom I traveled, put a hand on my arm as I raised the camera to focus. “Don’t take a picture,” he said. “It could be a security risk to photograph the outside of the building.”

I can’t really explain the feeling — surprise, shock, sadness. After all, that was my flag, representing my country. I had a right to shoot a picture, didn’t I? The bottom line to that adventure was “not this time.” I was certainly bewildered, and for the first time I can remember, that piece of cloth sporting red, white and blue took on more meaning than it ever had before or probably since that day.

I don’t have any real idea what someone with “boots on the ground” and their family gives up or brings back home with him or her. I don’t want them sacrificing life or limb on my account, but I’m so far down on the food chain on that one hardly anybody cares what I think. It is important, however, to recognize that tremendous sacrifices have been made, that lives are forever changed by war and that we must support in whatever way we can our fallen and wounded military personnel.

Memorial Day must be about more than parades and ceremonies. At St. Joseph’s in Marion, perhaps in other parishes as well, the names of those in harm’s way are called out aloud during the Prayers of the Faithful. As we call on our God, asking for safe return of our citizens from dangerous and life-threatening situations, we must also pray and remember those who gave their lives in service to their country.