Forget the fallen soldiers. Some people want Memorial Day to become a day about COVID-19.
A group of activists is petitioning the federal government to create a new annual national holiday to commemorate the coronavirus pandemic, and they want it to take place on Memorial Day weekend. Kristin Urquiza, a co-founder of a new advocacy group called Marked By COVID, says, “We have gone through a huge, ongoing, slow-moving train wreck together as a nation,” Urquiza told Today. “The last thing in the world that we should be doing for our overall health is pretending like it didn’t happen.”
Urquiza’s group also wants the federal government to commission permanent memorials, including a monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. She argued that the memorials would be a place for people to “collectively heal,” and they’d make sure that this country never “blips over” the tragedy of public health crises — whatever that means.
When asked what COVID-19 Memorial Day would look like, Urquiza compared her ideal coronavirus-themed holiday to a memorial for the deadly 9/11 terrorist attacks: “moments of silence,” “vigils,” “events across the country.”
Two questions arise here: Why should we consider crowding out a memorial to the people who died fighting our wars? Also, do we really want to remember this?
This year’s Memorial Day will be difficult enough since many military family members and friends still aren’t able to honor their loved ones in person. Most cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery, which is home to more than 14,000 fallen veterans, are limiting the number of visitors who can pay their respects in the graveyard, and they show no sign of opening back up to the general public any time soon.
Some military families have even had to ask well-meaning volunteers to visit their fallen loved ones’ gravesites for them because they can’t travel due to coronavirus-related concerns. Volunteers who are a part of the Honor Project, a new organization based in Washington, D.C., will pay their respects on the family’s behalf and provide a handcrafted wood flag at the desired grave. This way, all families will have “access to their loved ones,” said Emily Domenech, who helped start the initiative.
But back to the prior question: This plague isn’t something we ignored or pretended wasn’t happening. It has taken over our entire lives. Do we really want to think about it any longer than we have to?
