In Our View: Saluting Sacrifice

It is, undoubtedly, the most somber of holidays. A day for reflection. A day of remembrance. A day of acknowledging that we are here because they are not.

Memorial Day, which developed out of ceremonies commemorating those who died during the Civil War, honors those who perished in military service of the United States. It is neither more nor less significant than Veterans Day, which is observed in November and recognizes all those who have served in the military. But it is more somber. As James A. Garfield, then a congressman and future president of the United States, said at an early Memorial Day observance in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, “If silence is ever golden, it must be beside the graves of 15,000 men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem the music of which can never be sung.”

All told, the Civil War claimed the lives of 625,000 soldiers — an estimated 365,000 on the Union side and another 260,000 for the Confederates, according to “The Oxford Companion to American Military History.” Considering that the U.S. population was about 31.4 million at the time, the toll was staggering, yet the benefits incalculable. The Civil War preserved the union that grew into the world’s most powerful nation during the 20th century, and it was at the dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., that Abraham Lincoln famously spoke of a resolve that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

In World War I, a total of 116,516 Americans were killed, and World War II brought the death of 405,399 service members. Devastating costs — and yet the world was saved from despots and tyrants. Americans later fought — and died — bravely in Korea and Vietnam, and continue to do so today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? Because their country said they were needed, and they are men and women who answer the call of duty.

Those sacrifices and the losses suffered by countless families will not be in vain so long as the United States remains what Ronald Reagan called “a magnet for all who must have freedom.” And yet, Memorial Day did not become a national holiday until 1971, a rather surprising fact of history. While the day was observed in countless towns and hamlets for decades, it was not nationally recognized until relatively modern times.

Today, the occasion is marked with barbecues and baseball games and picnics and the unofficial beginning of summer. Celebratory, indeed, but somewhat contrary to the solemnness of the occasion. With that in mind, in December 2000, Congress passed a law requiring Americans to pause at 3 p.m. local time for a moment of silence to acknowledge the dead.

Amid the cacophony of celebrations and family gatherings, silence seems wholly appropriate. As The New York Times wrote editorially last year, “If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the silence at the heart of Memorial Day — the inward turn that thoughts take on a day set aside to honor the men and women who have died in the service of this country.”

Such is the solemnity and the humility of Memorial Day — a reminder of realities that are painful to comprehend, of the cost of war, and of those who died because their nation called them to serve. In answering that call, they helped create a nation that long has served as a beacon for the rest of the world. Their sacrifice rings somberly today.