MAY 27, 2019

          We have arrived at another celebration of Memorial Day on Earth Shan.  Memorial is defined by Webster as “an object, institution, or custom established in memory of a person or event”.  Thus, Memorial Day has become the official day to remember, to remember past wars and the soldiers, who died in them, and to honor them for their sacrifice.

          As we re-examine these past wars, we find that little, if any, good has come from them to benefit the common good.  We send our sons and daughters to be trained and mind-controlled to become killers of people and destroyers of property of our supposed enemies.  The Truth is modern warfare is done to control wealth, resources, land and peoples, and not to protect or bring freedom and justice to anyone.

          The war-makers desire power and control and use war to build empire.  The Military Industrial Complex makes money on war, the politicians support the War Machine to their benefit, the bankers gain great wealth by financing both sides of the conflict, and the people provide the brain-dead warriors and the money to make it all happen.  War is Hell, indeed!

          So, what is the point of celebrating Memorial Day?  Do we honor the trained killers, who have killed “foreigners” and destroyed their homes and lands, who were absolutely of no threat of harm to us?  Do we honor those, who have deliberately killed innocent men, women and children for sport, and died in their own foolishness?  Do we honor these, who have “given all” in support of the “Emperor” and his War Machine?

          To be patriotic must we bow to the “Commander” of this evil plan to control the world’s people and their resources?  Does patriotism mean support of the warriors, who destroy nations, or standing against such evil?  On this Memorial Day what do we celebrate?  What do we honor?  On this “Day to Remember” can we remember the cost and death and destruction and futility of past wars?  Can we remember the pain, the suffering and the disease?  War is supposed to bring goodness.  War is created by liars.  We are People of the Lie!

          Memorial Day is “a day to remember”.  Let us remember the mistakes, the foolish choices, the greed and the hatred by our presidents, our leaders, our armies and our people against other nations. Let us remember how we have broken God’s Laws for “right living” and have found no peace.  As People of the Lie, let us awaken and learn that war is futile.  Only through understanding and compassion and kind deeds can Peace come to our world.  We are all one, and people of other nations also desire peace.  This day, let us remember and then act to create peace within our own space.

bellringer@fourwinds10.com

www.fourwinds10.com

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Memorial Day [Decoration Day] was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html

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The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address:

Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.^[8]

Since 1987, Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, has repeatedly introduced measures to return Memorial Day to its traditional date.

After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress's change of date within a few years. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

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Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868

I.   The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foe? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their death a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the Nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and found mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation's gratitude,--the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.

II.   It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III.   Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.

By command of:

JOHN A. LOGAN,

Commander-in-Chief.

N. P. CHIPMAN,

Adjutant-General.

http://www.northofseveycorners.com/mil/memorder.htm

May 30, 2011