Memorial Day is dedicated to remembering those who have fallen in defense of our nation. It grew out of the practice of placing flowers on the graves of the union soldiers who died fighting the Civil War. Our little town has a small cemetery on a hill overlooking downtown. It also has a war memorial at the base of the hill listing the names of locals who died in combat. A few years ago the local American Legion raised money and remodeled it. The first memorial consisted of a couple bronze plaques, a few shrubs, and a small lawn between them.
In an effort to update the monument for the 21st century, volunteers removed the fifties era plaque and replaced the lawns and shrubs with concrete monoliths. I guess this was done because we moderns value order, and ease of maintenance, over the chaos of life that comes from living plants and nature. To me the new monument seems sterile and lifeless compared to the old; perhaps though, that’s an apt metaphor for our memories of these men and their sacrifices. Our town has quadrupled in size over the past decade. So there are few who remember even the families of these war dead – I certainly don’t. Progress, I guess.
Some of the plants destroyed in the remodel were old Peace Rose bushes. I imagine the ladies of the local horticulture club carefully planting, watering, and tending the roses to honor their dead. A connection, a small sacrifice; one that has been lost in the politics attendant to our town’s rapid growth.
The Peace Rose has a history of use in war memorials. It was hybridized in France in 1935 by Francis Meilland. Fearing loss of his plants during the Nazi invasion, Francis sent cuttings to friends in the UK and US. Robert Pyle, an American rose enthusiast, propagated plants from the cuttings he received and introduced the Peace Rose at the Pacific Rose Society show on April 29, 1945 – the same day Berlin fell. The Peace Rose became a symbol of the lasting peace the world sought after a second world war had taken yet another generation. The rose used to be quite common, it too has fallen from favor.
Another flower associated with Memorial Day is the poppy. The association of the poppy with the fallen came from the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian Lieutenant-colonel John McCrea MD.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Like so many others Lt-col. McCrea never made it home. Sadly, he died of Pneumonia near the end of the war.
Selling replicas of the Flanders poppy for the benefit of children in devastated areas of France and Belgium was started just after the war. In 1921 the American Legion adopted it as a symbol of the dead. Traditionally American Legion and VFW poppies were hand made by hospitalized veterans to give them a bit of income. I assume now they are made in China. The proceeds go to administering “programs” for deserving veterans. I suppose that’s progress.
Oh, among others, there was an American response to Dr. McCrea’s poem by American Lyricist R.W. Lillard.
Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead.
The fight that ye so bravely led
We’ve taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep
With each a cross to mark his bed,
In Flanders Fields.
Fear not that ye have died for naught.
The torch ye threw to us we caught.
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And Freedom’s light shall never die!
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders Fields.
Wear a poppy on Memorial Day to remember the foundation of our society is built on the blood and sacrifice of those whose never came home. The symbol is still relevant, even if expressions have changed through time. I hope that someday we will again put people before programs; now that would be real progress.