Memories and thoughts for Memorial Day | National Catholic Reporter

Memories and thoughts for Memorial Day | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: This will be the fourth Memorial Day column of MSW's that I have responded to. I was surprised I never wrote one myself in the DC Examiner, but there is none recorded on either my Facebook page or my blog.(I was more of a Labor Day blogger). I have previously remarked that Memorial Day was formerly Decoration Day, where Civil War graves (and really all graves) were kept up. Now, perpetual care makes that a thing of the past, so we have opted for parades in small town America.

There are lost cemeteries. Enon, Ohio, where I was a boy scout, had one. For some reason we decided that the winter was the time to reclaim it. I don't think we counted on 17 degree temperatures, but we did find and clear a Civil War grave. In prior days, I am sure the entire town would have turned out annually to clear this cemetary, but a new one was built and this one was forgotten in favor of a parade.

Of course, in DC the big parade is Rolling Thunder, where vets on bikes parade at a faster pace then most boy scouts can keep up. Anyone driving near the Pentagon on Sunday morning will not the lane closures and the noise - and will take a second to think about the soldiers lost in war.

Cities have big events while small towns, or neighborhoods in small towns, opt for the smaller scale. Ward 3 has a patriotic parade on the Fourth of July that attracts the politicians from the entire city (especially the ambitious ones) - I remember marching in that parade with Council Member John Ray when he was running for mayor and with Mayor Barry, who beat him, when I was his ward healer.

There is also a July 4th parade downtown, there used to be a large concert (with and without alcohol) and huge fireworks the rival New York City (which I have also gone to).

We also have Arlington Memorial Cemetary - and believe me that there are many events there on Memorial Day. There also used to be an event that I participated in remembering those people killed for non-service injuries that had to do with the war so they could not make it onto the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Washington has plenty of events, however they are truly national in scope - and I recall knowing quite a few of the participants on a first name basis. You have to care to plug in and Washington and environs will seem like a small town too.

Washington has another tradition of not burying African Americans in the District proper. This practice has not stopped with the end of segregation. Just outside the D.C. line, Prince Georges County has a huge African American Cemetary that is still the destination of a different kind of memorial parade as funerals go from Anacostia to the outskirts of the city. In DC, we even die separately. There are few black faces in the huge crowd for fireworks on the 4th, but if you are lucky enough to tour Anacostia that night you will see neighborhood fireworks bright enough to light up the night - from pinwheels to small rockets.

Of course, small town America is still there, but it is dwindling and in some places becoming a bit angry as Donald Trump stirs the worst in us all. Luckily it is only a one year deal.