This is Pastor Kim's short speech at the 2024 Wright City Cemetery Memorial Day Observance Service.
Good afternoon. I am Pastor Kim Purl of Immanuel United Church of Christ, Wright City. It is an honor to speak on this Memorial Day.
I do not have any experience serving in the military. My closest experience is with my brother and his wife. They faithfully served in the Army Guard in Iraq for Enduring Freedom, and his wife served in Desert Storm. They served while their daughter remained home. I have recalled when he and his wife, along with other veterans, have conveyed that Memorial Day is the toughest day of the year. They remember escorting fallen comrades onto transport aircraft to return home while they stayed behind. There are no words adequate to express the searing pain and loss.
Memorial Day was difficult from its inception. It was first nationally observed on May 30, 1868, as Grave Decoration Day, a remembrance day of the bloodiest US war -- the Civil War. 600,000 to 800,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died. That's more than WWI and WWII combined.
Every cemetery in the US took on the task of burying the dead. That includes the Wright City Cemetery, Harmonie Cemetery, and Smith Chapel Cemetery, among many others. Although 1868 was the first national observance of Memorial Day, in recent years, it was discovered that the first record of a memorial observance was held three years earlier, in 1865, one month after the Confederacy surrendered in Charleston, South Carolina.Â
This first observance was also in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, which had been used as a Confederate prison for Union captives. 260 soldiers died from disease and exposure while being held captive in the open-air field. Bodies were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstands.Â
Black Americans, emancipated from slavery, exhumed Union bodies, creating a cemetery nearby for a proper burial. They held a parade with songs and speeches at the racetrack to honor them – about 10,000 people were there. The Union Black Regiments were in attendance.
Memorial Day was not well received in Confederate states. There was resistance because it was painful to decorate the graves of enemies, and sometimes the enemy was family. It was incredibly complicated. Many years would have to pass. When the slain from WWI returned home, Memorial Day became a unified observation.
In recent years, the difficulty of Memorial Day has been that our society has forgotten its significance. For this reason, Congress unified to sign the National Moment of Remembrance Act on December 28, 2000. This Act designates 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day each year in honor of men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace. US citizens are encouraged to observe a moment of silence and organize experiences of remembrance and honor of the fallen.
Maybe all the difficulties of Memorial Day are intentional. It is okay for today to be uncomfortable and interrupted mid-afternoon with moments of silence, remembrances, and song. This day, we remember the sacrifices of soldiers’ lives in service to their country, and we are solemnly humbled.Â
May each soldier rest in peace and rise in glory. May God bless America.
It is not yet 3 pm, but let’s use this gathering to observe silence to remember and honor.Â
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Amen.
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