Remembering the dead

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Amid our celebration of the coming of summer that Memorial Day has come to represent, it is worth remembering the day’s original purpose:  to remember those who died in the wars of this nation’s history.  It is significant that the day has its origins in the aftermath of the Civil War that had so divided the country and had taken so many lives.  The memory of those who died in battle should prompt us to do everything we can to prevent such deaths, to rid ourselves of the idea that war and violence can solve our problems, and to embrace peaceful means of resolving the very real conflicts that we face.  The silence of the dead calls to us.  It urges us not to let others face the same fate, not to let these deaths be in vain, not to continue the cycle of bloodshed.  In our time, maybe more than in others, we need to listen.

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