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| 5.27.24

🇺🇸 Memorial Day 2024: How to Honor and Commemorate

Commemorate Memorial Day with charitable giving.

What's the meaning and history of Memorial Day?

  • While unofficially marking the beginning of summer, Memorial Day honors the service of U.S. military personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty. 
  • The first observances of Memorial Day began the year after the Civil War ended in 1866 when several communities gathered together to decorate the graves of local soldiers killed in the conflict.
  • Where the holiday officially began has been a matter of debate as various communities — including some in Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania — have claimed to be its birthplace. In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared that Waterloo, New York, had been the true birthplace a century earlier when the town's businesses all closed for the day, and flags were flown at half-staff.

How many American service members have died in the line of duty?

  • The Civil War remains the deadliest conflict in U.S. history, accounting for about 750,000 of the more than 1,354,664 Americans who died in the service of their country since the Revolutionary War. 
  • World War II was the deadliest conflict since the turn of the 20th century, in which 405,000 service members died, and over 291,000 were killed in combat. 
  • Over 7,000 U.S. military members died in the 21st century during the Global War on Terror, which began following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Most of those deaths occurred during military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. 
  • Most of the U.S. military deaths have been among service members younger than 30.

How to honor those who have served

There are a number of non-profit organizations and other initiatives that are intended to help Gold Star families who lost a family member in the course of their service to the country. 

This year, honor those who have served and members of Gold Star families through our Memorial Day Gravvy Spread, allowing you to make today's giving fast, personal, and effective.

Memorial Day Spread

 

Commemorate Memorial Day with charitable giving. 

 

(Photo credit: Airborne & Special Operations Museum Foundation)

  • 10.3k
    M
    05/29/2024

    Ronald Reagan, said this about our fallen servicemen in 1985:  

    “…Most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived.  When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers.  They gave up their chance to be revered old men.  They gave up everything for our country, for us.  And all we can do is remember.”

    Donald Trump called them "suckers."

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  • 99.3k
    LeslieG
    05/28/2024

    One way not to commemorate Memorial Day is not go on a rant about your own personal issues like Trump did complaining about all his judges,and one of his victims, E Jean Carroll.

    Of course when it comes to the military maybe it's best he says nothing if he is going to call them suckers and losers and want injured veterans hidden from sight.

    " Former President Donald Trump attackedE. Jean Carroll and others involved in his slew of legal issues in a Memorial Day post on Truth Social—despite threats of another potential defamation lawsuit as Trump already owes Carroll tens of millions."

    " Trump started Monday’s message with “Happy Memorial Day to All,” before going into a tirade against his “Human Scum” enemies, the “Radical Left” and key figures involved with his trials, past and present."

    " It’s not even the first time he’s marked a holiday meant to remember the dead with a tirade against his foes. In 2013, he sent “best wishes to all, even the haters and losers” on Sept. 11 in a tweet that has since been deleted."

    " multiple instances of President Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as “losers” and “suckers.”

    "..,senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments."

    "The defense officials said Trump made the comments as he begged off visiting the cemetery outside Paris during a meeting following his presidential daily briefing on the morning of Nov. 10, 2018."

    "Staffers from the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump that rainy weather made helicopter travel to the cemetery risky, but they could drive there. Trump responded by saying he didn’t want to visit the cemetery because it was “filled with losers,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly."

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-memorial-day-truth-social_n_66549578e4b0f5ad55978f14/amp

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/caileygleeson/2024/05/27/trump-blasts-e-jean-carroll-despite-losing-defamation-lawsuit-carrolls-attorney-says-all-options-are-on-the-table/

    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/09/03/report-trump-disparaged-us-war-dead-as-losers-suckers/

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    Martha
    05/28/2024

    One way to not commerate Memorial Day is to fly the flag upside down, like one Supreme Court Justice did.  He and Thomas need to be booted off the SC.  They have demostrated that they can not and will not rule based on the law, but instead rule based on their political ideologies.

  • 10.3k
    M
    05/27/2024

    I've become the only house on the block now who puts a flag out for Memorial Day. ☹️

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