Happy 3-Day-Weekend Day!

Memorial Day means that we get a day off work, unless we're on call at the hospital, then it means we're bitter about working this Monday. Turns out, however, that this is a culturally significant holiday that we've completely taken out of context, and it's time to put it back.

Originally “Decoration Day,” this holiday traces its roots to freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina after the Civil War. Around the same time a pair of Generals in upstate New York began a yearly celebration of the same name to honor those who fought and died. “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882 and made a national holiday in 1967.

That year is significant because it captures most of our most noble wars, all of them memorialized in one day, all the sacrifice, all the blood, all the honor of soldiers for two hundred years. As originally conceived, the holiday was always May 30th, but over time it became the last Monday in May to combine it with the weekend. It was further diluted by our common sense that this is the beginning of the summer vacation season. This has become a very casual holiday. We honor the barbeque more than our soldiers.

World War One, World War Two, the Civil War, the War of 1812, the Revolution. Our nation is relatively young among the nations of the early, but we have fought for goodness over and over. There are dozens of stories of great American heroes in action. I'll just share one.

One Maryland militia of 250 men fought with General Washington in first year of the Revolution. It was 1776, patriotic feeling ran high and New York City was under assault. The Continental Army had been dismissed by the British general as “rabble in arms” and were looked at with contempt. The Americans had taken Boston mostly because the British didn't think it was worth holding. New York, however, that was a key port and a strategic military center. The British were advancing and these brave minutemen had put their state pride and their lives at stake to defend Brooklyn Heights.

Washington had placed his troops well enough if they faced an evenly matched force. But they were outnumbered, outclassed, and outgunned. Not long into the fighting it became plain that New York would fall, and the General was helpless to do anything but watch. Brooklyn Heights was stormed by redcoats and the feared Hessian mercenaries. The American commander, William Sterling, sent the bulk of the troops through a swamp which was the last possible escape route and ordered the 250 Marylanders to engage the enemy and defend their retreating comrades.

The British feeling was that citizens with guns would melt away as trained, fearless, foot soldiers marched against them. This American militia did not fall back. Bravery was their undoing. Determined to hold the line the Marylanders held up against the British and were shot down in waves. “Good God,” Washington said, “what brave fellows I must this day lose!” When Sterling finally ordered a retreat, they fled into the swamps where they were shot, captured, and drowned. Very few made it back to camp.

How memorialized are these men? They fought unselfishly for a city they had never seen before, far from their homes, alone and abandoned. Do you see that Memorial Day is important? We can't know everyone who fought for our freedoms, but we can know a few. Learn a new story every year. Study a new war every year. We love peace but it is in war that we are defined.

Memorial Day exists so that the Marylanders will be remembered, as well as a million other heroes of the United States Armed Forces. Your barbeque is because of them; your three-day-weekend is because of them
Honor them.