Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published May 22, 2002

Do we remember
Memorial Day's meaning?

Another Memorial Day is almost here. Writer McLandburgh Wilson said of Memorial Day, "From our crowded calendar, one day we pluck to give; It is the day the dying pause to honor those who live."

No longer is it one day. Some years ago the date of Memorial Day was set as the last Monday in May. That made possible a holiday weekend. Today's observance is a far cry from the first days of remembrance. Following the Civil War a group of kind-hearted Southern women began decorating the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers with flowers from their gardens. The custom spread and May 30 was observed as Decoration Day.

Two poets described the day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "Your silent tents of green we deck with fragrant flowers; Yours has suffering been, The memory shall be ours." Walt Mason used similar words in his poem: "The little green tents where the soldiers sleep and the sunbeams play and the women weep, are covered with flowers today."

Years passed and as we engaged in more wars and the toll of dead rose, Decoration Day was changed to Memorial Day. It became an official federal holiday to honor all those in service who had given their lives for their country. Squeezed into the "welcome to summer weekend" filled with sports events, most towns still pause to remember the original reason for Memorial Day. There might be a parade or a service but always the cemeteries are filled with flags placed at the graves of veterans by the veterans' organizations.

If in recounting the history of Decoration/Memorial Day I sound like an old fuddy-duddy, so be it. I respect past history and it was troubling to read a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Education. A federally mandated test called the U.S. History Report Card was first given in 1994 to 29,000 fourth-, eighth- and 12th-graders at 1,100 public and private schools.

Seven years later in 2001 the test was given again, and the grades were termed "abysmal." Fifty-seven percent of the seniors could not perform even at the basic level defined by Education Secretary Rod Page as "the bottom of the achievement ladder." He continued, "This is unacceptable. History is a critical part of our nation's school curriculum. It is through history that we understand our past and contemplate our future."

A member of the test's governing board , Diane Ravitch, historian and education professor at New York University, was equally alarmed at the results. "Our ability to defend - intelligently and thoughtfully - what we as a nation hold dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear." She added, "That can only be achieved through learning the history we share, and clearly, far too many seniors have not learned even a modest part of it."

Annually PBS televises the Memorial Day concert from the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Nuggets of history along with entertainers fill the hour and a half. Why not gather the youngsters in front of the TV Sunday night, May 26, for an inspiring history lesson?

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.