Remember Memorial Day Meaning

Arlington Cemetery, from a visit in 2014. Center sculpture is titled “Price of Freedom.”
Lower left is honoring the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Right is the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

I almost forgot about Memorial Day this weekend. It’s the last Monday of May, but there are six days of May after the last Monday. So it came as a minor surprise. I had half written a post for this week, but I’m setting that aside for a few days to do this Memorial Day remembrance.

I admit, it took me a while—longer than it should have—to recognize what Memorial Day was. As a child, it was sometimes called “Decoration Day,” the day we decorated the graves of our ancestors with flowers from the garden. I didn’t attach the military meaning to it; we decorated the graves of all our relatives in a given cemetery, not just military members.

And once I attached the military meaning, then I incorrectly thought of it as a day to honor veterans. I didn’t get it right until maybe a decade and a half ago. Here’s the accurate info:

·       Armed Forces Day, for those currently serving, is celebrated the third Saturday in May (May 16 this year).

·       Veterans’ Day, for living former servicemen/women, is celebrated November 11.

·       Memorial Day, for those who died while serving, is celebrated the last Monday in May (May 25 this year).

 

Originally, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, whatever day of the week that fell on. That was changed when the majority of our holidays were placed on Mondays, in 1971, to give people a three-day weekend, which allowed for travel and was probably intended to thereby allow for more celebrating of those days. Unfortunately, a three-day weekend has made some such weekends generic. And Memorial Day may have thus suffered loss of meaning, or reverent remembering.

So to remedy that loss of remembering, I’m adding this post here, in grateful thanks to those who gave their all. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address:

…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Memorial Day is meant as a holy day, not a mere holiday. I expect most of us will enjoy the holiday aspects as well. Maybe a cookout or a family outing. But it would do our country well if we also set aside a bit of time to use the day for its intended purpose—to remember the fallen.

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That Wounded Beast Needs Defeating Again

Revelation 13:

1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

 We’ve mentioned the Revelation 13 beasts a number of times here, often enough that it’s starting to feel like a theme. Symbolically, this sea beast is the worldwide cabal, the whore of all the earth, the great and abominable church, the secret combinations, the deep state, the anti-Christ. The symbolism of the sea means it extends beyond one nation; it crosses the seas. So it is multinational. The heads represent leaders, or aspects, or possibly particular countries or organizations. I’m sure you can use your imagination to try to name them. Horns represent powers or abilities, and so do crowns. The multiple numbers of them show great power. Seven is symbolic of completeness; ten also indicates completeness, so it probably means over the whole entire world. The dragon from which the beast gets its power, position, and authority is Satan.

Now take a look at verse 3. One of the heads is wounded. It looks like it is a mortal wound. But then that head is healed, which seems incredible to the world. I think the likely real-world corollary of this wounded head is the taking out of communism/socialism/fascism in the past century. We defeated this beast head in World War II. That should have been the end of it. The many millions who had died because of this beast head were a sure indicator of its evil nature, and the good people of the world wanted it thoroughly and completely defeated.

We thought we had done that. We thought we had conquered the ideologies that led to hundreds of millions of deaths in the last century. The people in general were absolutely against them. No communism. No socialism. No Nazism. We had won WWII. Korea and Vietnam were also against this ideological enemy. But eventually we even won the Cold War.

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The Judicial Branch: Celebrating the Semiquincentennial, Part V

We’re continuing our monthly series celebrating the nation’s 250^th birthday. Here are the previous parts:

·        Part I: The Declaration of Independence

·        Part II: The Preamble of the Constitution

·        Part III: Lawmaking

·        Part IV: The Executive Branch

In our Part V today, we’re getting to Article III of the Constitution, which covers the judicial branch of the federal government. That is, the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

The Supreme Court is somewhat seasonal. It is typical for the session to choose, in late summer and fall, what cases it will hear for the year—and the year is numbered by when the process starts, so we’re currently still in the 2025 session. They will hear oral arguments for those cases throughout the winter and spring. And they make their rulings by the end of June. That’s a general rule. In reality, they can take up an urgent case and rule on it quickly at any time. And they aren’t required to wait until June to rule on any case; they can rule when they have a decision ready. And sometimes they hold a ruling until July or so. It just typically piles up until June, with rulings coming out in multiples the last couple of weeks. It feels a bit like a sports tournament, with results coming down to the wire and everyone paying close attention.

Article III, Sections 1-3

Let’s do our due diligence and make sure we understand the actual wording of this relatively short article of the Constitution.

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