Today, Divided We Stand...

Memorial Day Weekend. A holiday for some, a time of grieving for others. And yet, a time for celebration for many.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.  That's the key part: "who died while serving in the country's armed forces." The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, competing Union and Confederate holiday traditions, celebrated on different days, had merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Memorial for some means a time to visit family graves, not just those who served in the Military. But no matter why you observe Memorial Day, it is a day of reverence to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifices for our great nation. 

But when you look around, maybe our nation isn't so great. We have a bitter battle going on amongst the Presidential candidates. Finger pointing, backbiting, mud slinging. Friends disowning friendships. We live in a country that is literally at war with itself. Riots have returned. And nobody seem to be paying attention to a very important document, that includes this passage:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — 

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Some say we are reaching the end of time. Armageddon is nigh.  Others talk about another civil way.

So on this special weekend, let's put aside differences and strive to become one with our brothers and sisters. Maybe the following video will help explain part of our problem. With everything going on in the world, we need to examine our education crisis. Sad when we don't even know why we honor a holiday. Or the history of our own country.

For all of our fallen, thank you!