Happy Memorial Day, all. I'm going to pull a quote from a previous OTE article because the words therein are far more poignant than anything that I could scrounge together. In 1919, an anonymous writer at the Daily Illini summed up the announcement of the proposed Memorial Stadium as so:
“Now that the smoke of battle is over and the captains and kings have departed, it is only fitting and proper that we should turn our attention to erecting a memorial as a tangible evidence of our thanks to those who gave their lives to bring peace to the world. That we should have a memorial for the men who have made the supreme sacrifice meets the approval of everyone. …The fitting memorial, we must remember, is the one that will do the most good. We must remember that we are erecting this memorial for men who gave their lives that others might live.
If the dead hero could speak, would he utter words of pleasure over a marble shaft erected to his memory? Would he be pleased to note a French garden planted in his name? It is not belittling the dead to suggest a memorial that will be useful and that will fill a long-felt need of the community. To erect something that will make for the comfort of future generations is the only way that we dare offer a gift to the dead.”
So today, let's celebrate the holiday with friends and family, drink beer and eat cheese-filled brats, take the day of leisure in lieu of labor. But also, let’s take a quiet moment to remember the service given by those before us, and honor their sacrifice by doing what we can and they cannot: provide voice to their memory, celebrate with loved ones, and embrace the things that make this country what it is and what it should always aspire to.
