Messmer Column: Recognizing Memorial Day

Local Sources - Indiana Senator Mark Messmer has issued the following statement ahead of Memorial Day.

Each year, on Memorial Day, Americans honor the men and women who lost their lives while serving our country and protecting our freedom.

As Hoosiers celebrate this Memorial Day with parades, barbecues with family and friends and the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500, it's important to remember why this holiday is observed and to honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Memorial Day originally began in 1868 – three years after the Civil War ended – when the head of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans, officially established Decoration Day. On this day, the nation would decorate with flowers the graves of the those who perished during the wars.

On the first Decoration Day, 5,000 participants decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This day was later made a federal holiday in 1971 to honor all of America’s fallen service members. 

The respect we pay toward our fallen service members reflects the value and esteem we place on their sacrifice.

President Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."

I offer my deepest thanks to the heroes who have given their lives for our nation, as well as their families. May we never take our freedom for granted.

Have a happy Memorial Day.