Memorial Day

This weekend is Memorial Day. Now before I get off on how our President isn't going to honor this day, I want to a special thanks to all the men and women who risk their lives every day for 300,000,000 strangers every day. Also a special thanks to their families and to the families and service members of those who's loved ones didn't make it home. It is for these people who we fight for freedom and liberty here at home. Now for the history of Memorial Day.

After the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to remember those who had died in the war. On May 5, 1866, and each year after, it got its first real observance in Waterloo, New York. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' organization, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle.

Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were relatively few veterans of the Union Army who were buried in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866, at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.

The alternative name of "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The holidays included Washington's Birthday, now celebrated as Presidents' Day; Veterans Day and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.

Now every President in the past has gone to Arlington Cemetary on Memorial Day. But now President Obama has decided to take a vacation and a tour of the oil spill on this sacred day. Once again he thumbs his nose at the military and disrespect them, their families, and all in this land that they died for. This is not the act of an American President but the act of a Progressive President who doesn't believe in America but believes in a one world government.