'Share their stories': Pause to honor sacrifices on Memorial Day | Candace McKibben

When my husband and I took our grandson to Washington, D.C., for Spring Break 2024, I learned something about the National Park Service that I had either forgotten or never knew. And that is that this governmental agency of the United States manages not only all the national parks, but also most national monuments and memorials, as well as other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations.

National Parks are set apart by Congress for use by the American people because of an outstanding natural feature that inspires, educates, and supports recreation.

National Monuments are reserved by the Federal Government because they contain objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest. Created in 1916 under President Woodrow Wilson, the NPS today manages 429 units (usually called parks), 150 related areas, and numerous programs that help conserve the nation's natural and cultural heritage for the benefit of current and future generations.

While we certainly did not see all of the 25 NPS units in the District of Columbia, we did see the iconic ones on the mall, and were especially moved by those memorializing fallen soldiers.

Military memorials

There are 11 military memorials designated on or near the National Mall, two of which are still in progress, including the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial Site and the Global War on Terror Memorial Site.

The considerable sensitivity and thought that is spent in developing each memorial is deeply evident in the sacredness felt upon entering the space they occupy. And this Memorial Day weekend, many visitors to DC will be moved by these memorial sites as they reflect upon the ultimate sacrifice made by so many through the years on behalf of our nation and the republic for which it stands.

In particular, a group of people associated with Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), will be present in numbers. The President of TAPS, Bonnie Carroll, says that for survivors of a military loss, every day is memorial day.

But the national holiday “is an important opportunity for a grateful nation to acknowledge the men and women who served and died. It ensures that Americans never underestimate the high price of freedom and never forget the heroes who bravely defended it.”

Carroll implores us all “to say their names, share their stories, and support those they left behind."

Special activities

This year, as every year since TAPS inception in 1994, the organization that Carroll founded has a weekend of meaningful activities planned in the DC area for those remembering a fallen hero on Memorial Day.

According to their website, taps.org, which is replete with helpful resources, thousands of survivors will gather with TAPS at the Annual National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camp in Arlington, Virginia, this weekend.

Survivors will also participate in the National Memorial Day Concert hosted by PBS at 8 p.m., May 26, and the National Memorial Day Parade hosted by Boeing at 2 p.m. on May 27.

In our area, citizens can tune in to either or both the concert (WFSU-TV) and parade (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW stations). We might also attend the Memorial Day Ceremony at The National Cemetery on Apalachee Parkway at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 26, or the AARP Memorial Day Walk at Maclay Gardens at 8 a.m. Monday, May 27, among other local events to commemorate the day.

Preserving a dream

For many, Memorial Day has become a day to find great sales on big ticket items, to kick off the summer with the first barbecue, or to otherwise enjoy a holiday.

But at its heart, Memorial Day is about remembering those who died to preserve a dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people, the dream of liberty and justice for all.

For centuries great thinkers have come to the same conclusions about how a people treat their heroes and sheroes. Cicero, Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer, who lived in the century prior to Christ said, “Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.”

Centuries later, President Abraham Lincoln said, “A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” When President Harry Truman was in office he concurred, vowing, “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."

Early celebrations

When Memorial Day was founded in our country as Decoration Day, it was at the end of the Civil War, when more than 622,000 Americans, from the North and the South, had died. While several cities claim to be the first to have a Memorial Day celebration, one of the earliest and perhaps largest ceremonies was held in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865.

Historian, Dr. David Blight, writes that in May 1865 newly freed African Americans reburied 257 Union soldiers who had died in a prison camp and were hastily buried, so that they might have a proper interment. The new graves were blanketed by flowers and dedicated, with thousands of people parading down the racetrack that had once been the site of the prison camp.

If not the first Memorial Day celebration, it seems to me to have best captured the intent of the day, to honor those who died in war.

Amidst the distractions we may face this Memorial Day, including the mixed emotions many of us have about war as we see it being played out in our world, I hope that, like the newly freed African Americans in 1865, we can find ways to meaningfully honor those who died in service to our country, no matter how they died.

Prayer and reflection

And I hope that like Truman, who both ordered the horrific bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and proclaimed Memorial Day, Tuesday, May 30, 1950, and each succeeding Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace, we will look for the paradoxes of war and peace in our own spirits and pursue peace.

In 2000, a “National Moment of Remembrance” was added to the ways Americans were asked to celebrate Memorial Day. At the bidding of Congress, Americans were asked to pause on Memorial Day for one minute, at 3 p.m. local time, to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to provide freedom for all.

Suggested as a simple and unifying way to commemorate our history and honor the struggle to protect our freedoms, it also is a symbolic wave of hope as Americans around the globe, each in their own specified time, pause to remember.

To “re-member” is to unify, to reconcile, to make whole, and it is my prayer for our nation and our world this Memorial Day.

The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship.

Tallahassee's Memorial Day Ceremonies

Tallahassee National Cemetery: 11 a.m. Sunday, May 26, Memorial Day Ceremony at National Cemetery, 5015 Apalachee Parkway

AARP Memorial Day Walk: 8 a.m. Monday, May 27, at Maclay Gardens, 3540 Thomasville Road

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3308: 11 a.m., Monday, May 27. Memorial Service and the DAR Dedication of Never Forget Garden Marker ceremony at the Tallahassee VFW Cemetery, 1855 Fox Road.

Leon County: Staff will lay a wreath during a formal ceremony hosted by the American Legion Sauls-Bridges Post 13 at 11 a.m. Monday, May 27, at Oakland Cemetery, 838 North Bronough St.

The County will also place wreaths at seven additional locations:• World War II Memorial at the Leon County Courthouse, 301 South Monroe St.• Korean War Memorial at Cascades Park, 790-798 Suwannee St.• Florida Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 463-489 South Monroe St.• Big Bend Hospice Veterans Memorial Garden, 1723 Mahan Center Boulevard• Daniel B. Chaires Community Park, 4768 Chaires Cross Road• Greenwood Cemetery, 1601 Old Bainbridge Road• Veterans of Foreign Wars Cemetery, corner of Fox Road and Old Briar Trail off of Hwy 319 in Leon County

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Make time to pause and remember on Memorial Day