Some students in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., were eager to sign a fake petition calling to “unrecognize” Memorial Day because it glorifies “American imperialism.”
The fake petition, written by the conservative news site and higher-education watchdog Campus Reform, called to end the annual federal holiday that honors men and women who have dedicated their career to serving in the armed forces. After a video reporter with the group asked college-aged students whether they would sign the form, a young woman who was interviewed in the video said Memorial Day “represents a lot of negative aspects of America and highlights something that people shouldn’t necessarily be proud of.”
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Several others signed the petition but admitted on camera they did not fully understand why the United States celebrates the holiday, although some recognized the holiday is meant to honor the lives of fallen soldiers who gave their lives to defend the country.
“I’m not celebrating. I don’t think Memorial Day should be a thing that we celebrate, personally,” one young man told the reporter.
When asked why, the man said, “I think it’s a celebration of U.S. imperialism and colonialism,” adding, “I didn’t really think this way until I got to college and I took women’s and gender studies classes and that put me on this path where I’m like, ‘Yeah, f**k the US.'”
Memorial Day was first celebrated three years after the Civil War. On May 5, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic established Decoration Day to honor fallen soldiers’ graves and established May 30 as the annual holiday, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The first major observance of the holiday was held that year at the Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1971, Congress passed an act declaring Memorial Day a national holiday, placing its observance on the last Monday in May.
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On Sunday, approximately 50,000 motorcyclist military veterans gathered outside the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in D.C. to raise awareness for the upcoming holiday.
“Start learning your history and how this country was made and [about] being free. It took our veterans to keep it this way,” motorcyclist Thomas Williams, who served in the Navy from 1976 to 2002, told the Washington Examiner.
