I’m Fixing to Remember Not to Forget.

I’m fixing to remember not to forget.

What I’m not going to forget is the real reason we’ll all be frolicking in the sun or chilling out in the shade this coming Monday, May 30. While we munch on burgers, dogs, barbecue, potato salad and pound cake, and wash it down with our sweet tea, soft drinks and adult beverages, I plan to remember the real reason we’re at leisure this special day—to celebrate the lives and honoring the remembrance of our military veterans, especially the ones who gave the last full measure.

We all know it’s call Memorial Day, but it was originally called Decoration Day. There are many stories of its actual beginning with several locations claiming to have been the birthplace of it, but it is more likely that it had many separate beginnings. We do know these celebrations began after the Civil War, or as I prefer to call it, the Uncivil War.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all the northern states, while the southern states held their own Confederate Memorial Day.
But that all changed after WWI when the holiday was combined by the north and the south to honor Americans who died fighting in any war. Since then it has been made official by the National Holiday Act which was passed by the Congress in 1971, although several states in the south still celebrate a separate day.

I do truly honor all our veterans, but there still lingers a special place in my heart for the ones who didn’t come home to parades, celebrations and confetti, but rather to being cursed, spat upon and called baby killers. Those were our Vietnam veterans. Over 58,000 of them didn’t come home, or if they did, it was in a body bag.

Our boys returning to the World from Nam in the late 1960s and into the 1970s would change from their uniforms into civvies in the restrooms of the last airport before venturing out, in the hopes of escaping the taunts and curses of misguided Americans.
I don’t know where those people are today, the ones who used their discontent on our soldiers rather than our politicians. And I don’t remember hearing any of them apologize. Maybe they have to their Maker, but not to their fellow man.

But sometime later the national conscience was aroused and a move was set about to honor these veterans, and in 1982 the Vietnam Memorial Wall was completed in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. If you ever go, I’ll guarantee that it will bring tears to your eyes before you even touch it, and behold the over 58,000 who gave their lives for their country.

We have a unique opportunity beginning tomorrow, May 27 through Monday, May 30, just a short 45 minutes away, where a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall will be erected at the Georgia Wyomia Tyus Olympic Park in Griffin. It will be open 24 hours a day until dusk on Memorial Day. If you want to show your children some real heroes, take them there.

I’ve been to the Wall in D.C., so I’m not going too far this Memorial Day. In fact I’m just going next door. My neighbor, Hollis Lawrence, who turned 92 last week, is a Veteran of WWII. I’m fixing to go over there and thank him for his service.