Bee Editorial
It's next generation's turn on Memorial Day
The men and women who have quietly walked for many years among the tombstones of this nation's cemeteries prior to Memorial Day, deftly pushing miniature American flags beside the graves of their deceased comrades, need some relief.

They need you to take over the job.

They need you, your neighborhood friends, your Scout troop, your co-workers and the people with whom you worship. If we can adopt highways for the purpose of picking up litter, why can't we adopt cemeteries and give the silent veterans the final flutter of patriotism they deserve?

As President Abraham Lincoln urged in his eloquent second inaugural address, we must "care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan."

Those simple flags say so much when viewed by families and friends of the fallen.

The tradition of decorating the graves of American veterans began in the wake of the Civil War. In communities both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, citizens honored the war dead through flowers and flags, thus the original term of "Decoration Day."

Gen. John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a proclamation on May 5, 1868 that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide. The alternative name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882 but did not become more common until after World War II. It was appropriate that fellow veterans handle the task, but times change.

Should this tradition fade away because those who upheld it so faithfully are no longer able to do it? We counted on them to teach us to ride a bicycle, throw a baseball and bake cookies. It's time to return the favor and pick up the responsibility of doing something truly American.

Our present-day men and women in the armed forces who have been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan have qualified - all too soon - for this honor. Their surviving comrades will someday deserve the same show of respect. Do not deny them that honor because a weekend of barbecues, gardening or a nap got in the way.

There are many civic and community groups, large and small, that should make this project a priority in the years ahead.

Lt. Col. John McCrae, a medical doctor in the Canadian Army, put it best in 1915 when he wrote the following words:
  To you from failing hands we throw the
torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
  We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
  In Flanders fields.