Today is Memorial Day. Here’s Bill’s note from last year, which we remembered well and thought required no additional comments.
Jim Swift
Deputy Online Editor
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Memorial Day
Today is Memorial Day, which, as Amy A. Kass and Leon R. Kass point out in their indispensable guide to the American holidays, isthe one among our holidays that “alone bears the name and thespecific call to remembrance: Memorial Day.” As the Kasses explain,
The Kasses provide a wonderful selection of Memorial Day readings, ranging from Herman Melville to Frederick Douglass to Ernie Pyle, along with helpful commentary. One of the poems they recommend is Theodore O’Hara’s “Bivouac of the Dead,” whose first stanza is famous because of its prominent place atthe main entrance to Arlington Cemetery, and which has stuck in my mind since I first saw it there:
The soldier’s last tattoo;
No more on life’s parade shall meet
The brave and daring few.
On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.
Read the whole thing, as they say.
I also recommend two fine pieces in the Wall Street Journal. One by Princeton professor Uwe E. Reinhardt on visiting American military cemeteries abroad, and one by John Bussey on returning to the roots of Memorial Day.
It brought to mind the day we spent near the end of our TWS Mediterranean cruise, in the summer of 2011, at Normandy, and visiting that amazing battle site and cemetery with many who were with us on the cruise who had served, including our son, recently back from Afghanistan. We’ve had many fine moments on our cruises, but none stand out for me like that day.
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Onward!
Bill Kristol
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