The Memorial Day holiday is set aside to honor the 1,321,323 American war deaths here and abroad since the year 1775.
As I waved and set out flags last weekend, and walked through the patriotic flag display on the Wrightsville Municipal complex, the weight of the importance of this national holiday was with me more than ever before.
The flag of our country represents American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press and the sanctity of the home. I feel a pressing need to remember those freedoms and those millions who died securing freedom for us. I believe as a nation we take those freedoms for granted.
I set out to learn what the colors in the flag of United States of America represent only to find out the colors used for Stars and Stripes did not represent anything specific at the time it was created. That flag has seen many changes since the June 14, 1777, Continental Congress decreed that it would be comprised of 13 alternating red and white stripes, one for each colony: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, anchored by 13 white stars on a blue background. But no explicit meaning was attached to the colors chosen.
Not surprisingly, the colors are the same as on the British Union Jack.
Stars have been added to the original flag as new states have joined the union. The modern-day flag contains 50 stars.
But what did surprise was that same year precise instructions were given to create a seal for the emerging nation and each color was specifically chosen and held definite meaning as did each element of the seal.
The Great Seal can be seen on the back of the one-dollar bill. It is both an emblem and national coat of arms representing an independent nation and a free people.
It contains elements of the flag and a repeating pattern of 13 — stars, stripes, arrows, olive branch leaves, and 13 letters in the motto carried by the National Emblem, the bald eagle in the center of the seal.
The eagle is holding in its beak a scroll inscribed E pluribus unum, which is Latin meaning “out of many, one” and stands for one nation that was created from the 13 colonies. In one claw is an olive branch, while the other holds a bundle of 13 arrows. The olive branch and arrows “denote the power of peace and war.” Protecting the eagle is a shield with 13 red and white stripes. Above the eagle is a cloud surrounding a blue field containing 13 stars, which forms a constellation symbolizing that a new State is taking its place among the other nations.
Reporting to Congress on the new seal, Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thompson said, “The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.” The great seal was adopted six years later on June 20, 1782.
Over time the lines have blurred in ascribing the intent of the colors of the one to the other.
A book about the flag published in 1977 by the U.S. House of Representatives adds this information: “The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun.”
For those who served in the military and their families, Memorial Day holds a far different meaning than the first official day of the summer suntan season.
The costliest war in our nation’s history was the Civil War lasting from 1861-1865. This brother-against-brother conflict took the largest toll of any war then and now in terms of American lives: a staggering 625,000.
In contrast, there were just 1,000 more combined war dead during the First (1917-1918) and Second (1941-1945) World Wars, (116,516 and 405,399 respectively).
Fast forward to the Iraq war which saw 4,804 Americans give their lives for freedom there from 2003-2012. The war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 and is ongoing, has claimed 3,441 American servicemen and women, as of May 24, 2014.
Many honored these 1.3 million deaths with flags and buntings and ceremonies like the one on the Battleship U.S.S. North Carolina on Monday evening.
To others, it is just an opportunity for a three-day weekend in the sun.
It was by all accounts one of the best holiday weekends in memory on Wrightsville Beach except for the parking. Town officials were relieved that the increase in parking meter fees was not a deterrent. Observations were that all spaces were filled by midmorning each day, with parking availability augmented by beach side churches allowing beachgoers to park in their lots for any donation.
Those flocking to the beach this Memorial weekend appeared to be more ethnically diverse than even before. In the core 16 street end areas of the beach strand between the bridges, the all-white beach stigma is changing. Accents also overheard included European, Asian and Hispanic, lending itself to the notion that enjoyment of the beach is a worldwide multicultural phenomenon.
Observing a sandy, salty non-white family in the East Salisbury Street parking lot as the children changed out of wet bathing suits shielded by the car, siblings exclaimed over what they had done and saw. One enthusiastic child defined for me what these weekends are for many as she declared loudly, all the while jumping up and down, “It was the best day, ever, in my whole life!”
