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Editorial
Board |
| Robert L. Hunter,
Editor |
| Julie Wurth,
Managing Editor |
| Wm. H. Manny, Executive News Editor |
| John N. Reid,
Executive Editor |
Memorial Day can be for both remembering and celebrating
We didn't want Memorial Day to pass too far into the distance without commenting on a story about how many people overlook the day's importance.
It is lamentable that many have lost sight of the origins and meanings of Memorial Day. We need to remember, along with the camping trips we plan and the picnics we stock up for, that it is a day set aside to honor the lives given by American servicemen in service to their country.
But those fishing trips, those long lazy weekends and those family get-togethers that we enjoy on Memorial Day are themselves testimonials to the victories those servicemen won.
We were moved by the comments of one veteran in Tuesday's newspaper, about how the reality of war is not familiar to young people -- and how that's not a bad thing:
"What (the veteran) here has done has allowed them to go camping and things," Vietnam vet Michael Footh told Mail Tribune reporter Dave Preszler.
It seems that every generation finds that the next lacks proper reverence for the accomplishments and sacrifices of its elders. But it also seems true that today's young people are the first to be really isolated from war.
You didn't have to grow up before the 1940s to be familiar with some of the consequences of wartime. Children of the 1950s had friends and relatives fight and die in Korea; in the 1960s, it was Vietnam. Arching over the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80s was the everpresent Cold War. Even in peacetime, the language of war was part of daily life, and like everyone else children learned to live with the realities represented by terms like "missile gap," "arms race" and "mutually assured destruction."
It's only been this decade that such omnipresent fears have dissipated.
We would not have today's youth ignore history, its sacrifices or costs. Those who ignore history are, in the words of a wise person, condemned to repeat it. War is not something that even the most gung-ho veteran would want to see repeated.
Those of us with children need to remind our children, and ourselves, about the reasons for the holiday, and appreciate the sacrifices made -- for them -- by the fallen heroes of previous generations.
On the other hand, to live in a time when children can grow up knowing almost nothing of war, well, there's something to be said for an ignorance like that.
Political quietudeIn these days of the political "communications consultant," the soundbite and the message of the day, this little item from a 1931 Mail Tribune caught our eye:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 -- (AP) -- The summer news lull at the White House ... reached its peak.President Hoover today called off his regular semi-weekly conference with Washington correspondents for the third time in two weeks.
It was explained again today that the chief executive had nothing to discuss for publication.
