Whatever Happened to Memorial Day?

In 1963, Edward Adelbert Slavin, Sr., my father, purchased American flags for every home on the block in Pennsauken, N.J., where we then lived, and he and I were photographed together for our Camden N.J. Catholic Star-Herald newspaper placing one of the flags in front of our home.
My father taught me the values of patriotism, which he thought was standing up for human rights.
My father knew, having jumped out of airplanes as a World War II 82nd Airborne Divn. paratrooper in North Africa, Sicily and Normandy. He volunteered the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Empire of Japan. The cutline of the photo said he was a "machine-gunner," but I did not learn what that truly meant until he and I had candid discussions about war after I had graduated from law school.
On Memorial Day weekend 1999, my father was featured as one of three veterans in a 30 minute special on a Philadelphia tv station. My father told how he and other veterans enjoyed speaking to schools about their experiences, hoping that there would be, as he said, "no more wars."
That's the point of Memorial Day, he taught me -- not mindless war-mongering.
My father taught me that Memorial Day was to honor freedom fighters, including his friends who died defeating Nazis.
Memorial Day began after the Civil War defeated slavery and the slavocracy of the Southern aristocracy.
In sharp and marked contrast are the sappy sentiments and incorrect lessons of many Memorial Day utterances by politicians and military officers, many of whom never fought for freedom, with or without a uniform, and are merely giving lip service to a powerful constituency.
Here's a perfect example: last year's Memorial Day speech at the St. Augustine National Cemetery by the commanding general of the Florida Air National Guard, a part-timer and commercial airline pilot. The general said nothing about the Civil War dead buried beneath our feet.
The Florida Air National Guard commanding general's perfectly pedestrian speech -- which the general claims to have destroyed and thus did not provide in response to a records request -- was perfectly awful, the sort of right-wing Philistinism one associates with faux Fox News. The general's speech was all about our history since 1775 of killing foreigners, not about patriotic Americans fighting for freedom.
That's not patriotism, it's truculent nationalism, with a huge racist blindspot -- he was speaking atop graves marked USCT (U.S. Colored Troops), a tribute to the brave men who fought to end slavery . No mention of the USCT graves, no mention of the defeat of the Confederacy, no quote from Abraham Lincoln. Knowing there would be descendants of Confederate veterans and KKK members in the audience, the estimable general eschewed truth for expediency. How gauche. How louche.
My late mentor, KKK-infiltrator Stetson Kennedy, was once shown a Larry Tucker photo of a North Carolina KKK cross-burning. Asked who the guys with hats were in the foreground, KKK-fighter Stetson Kennedy opined, "I think they might be North Carolina National Guard."
Let's hope that our unenlightened, unenlightening, uninspiring Florida Air National Guard general doesn't get invited speak this year, and that somewhere in St. Augustine today the heroic Civil War sacrifices that ended slavery will be recounted -- respected and not neglected.
Let's not look to part-time, partisan National Guard generals to lecture us about patriotism -- it's like listening to school superintendents about education.
There are better speakers, like veterans, teachers (and veteran teachers).
My father loved the military, but he disliked officers, many of whom risked soldiers' lives out of ego and ignorance.
He would regale the former officers at 82nd Airborne Divn. reunions about his activities. (The South Jersey Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Divn. Assn. is the "Corporal Edward A. Slavin Chapter," for a reason.
Our City of St. Augustine is reinventing itself, with two civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square. There's a wonderful exhibit on 450 years of African-American history. How many Florida National Guard officers and enlisted people have viewed it?
There's a rededication of our City of St. Augustine's war memorial at 11 AM, and I know our City officials will acknowledge the contributions of our Civil War heroes, as well as our Civil Rights heroes and she-roes, many of whom lost their lives. Mayor Joseph L. Boles, Jr., unlike the Florida National Guard general, knows how to give a speech and how to respect and celebrate diversity -- his speeches on Gay Pride Day, the Hannukah Menorah Lighting and dedication of the Andrew Young Monument and Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Monument have made us all proud to live here.
So whatever happened to Memorial Day? When did so many people stop observing it? When did its true purpose become obscured and perverted from thanking freedom-fighters? To hear that young general talk, it's a holiday for the bloodthirsty, dedicated to killing foreigners.
Why must we Americans constantly be stirred up with xenophobia these days?
As The New York Times and Newsweek asked us in 2001, "How afraid should we be?"
Be grateful to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, for revealing lawbreaking that steals our freedoms.
Be grateful to investigative reporters, who daily fight for freedom against despots like Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR.
Be grateful to the veterans who secured our freedom, from 1775-83 to 1861-65 to 1941-1945.
Be grateful to the veterans who fought in misbegotten wars, like Vietnam.
Be grateful to all of them. They fought for all of us, even when their generals and civilian leaders were wrong.
Too often, they were disrespected when they came home!
What do y'all reckon? You tell me.
For my part, working for freedom here in our Nation's Oldest City, working with activists, winning victory after victory, is in the spirit of General George S. Patton, Jr., who said in his famous "Weather Prayer": Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.