Speaker 1: Something you should know. Today is Memorial Day. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you a little more about Memorial Day
Speaker 1: right now, and I'm going to invite you to celebrate
Speaker 1: Memorial Day the right way with me a little bit
Speaker 1: later today. It's an annual observance that can be traced
Speaker 1: back to the end of the Civil War, where sadly
Speaker 1: we lost over a half a million people. Southern women
Speaker 1: would scatter spring flowers on the graves of both Southern
Speaker 1: Confederate soldiers but also Northern Union soldiers. In many cases,
Speaker 1: these were their cousins and sometimes even brothers. The sad
Speaker 1: reality of a divided America, many places claimed to have
Speaker 1: held the original Memorial Day. You'll find communities like Warrington, Virginia, Columbus, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: Bowls Bill, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, New York, all claiming that
Speaker 1: Decoration Day or Memorial Day started there. Charleston, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: is another They had covered two hundred and fifty seven
Speaker 1: Union soldiers who had died at a prison camp there
Speaker 1: in May one, eighteen sixty v five former slaves organized
Speaker 1: a parade led by twenty eight hundred singing children, They prayed,
Speaker 1: they read Bible verses and saying spirituals, and they reburied
Speaker 1: the soldiers with honor as an act of gratefulness for
Speaker 1: their ultimate sacrifice which gave them freedom. President James Garfield
Speaker 1: only made one executive order in eighteen eighty one, and
Speaker 1: that was to give government workers May thirtieth off so
Speaker 1: they could decorate the graves of those who died in
Speaker 1: the Civil War. In nineteen twenty one, President Warren Harding
Speaker 1: had the remains of an unknown soldier killed in France
Speaker 1: during World War One buried in the Tomb of the
Speaker 1: Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Inscribed on the tomb as
Speaker 1: the phrase here rests in honored glory an American soldier
Speaker 1: known but to God. Since nineteen twenty one, it has
Speaker 1: been the tradition of every president to lay a wreath
Speaker 1: on the tomb of the unknown Soldier. It's guarded twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days
Speaker 1: a year, the number twenty one being the highest salute
Speaker 1: the century. Takes twenty one steps, faces the tomb for
Speaker 1: twenty one seconds, turns and pauses for twenty one seconds,
Speaker 1: then retraces his steps the number twenty one has explained
Speaker 1: on the US Army Center of Military History website. It
Speaker 1: goes back to wartime ships who fired seven gun salutes.
Speaker 1: They believe the seven guns were tied to biblical significance,
Speaker 1: but land batteries had a greater supply of gunpowder, so
Speaker 1: instead of seven, they would do three shots of seven,
Speaker 1: which gives us the twenty one gun salute, the highest
Speaker 1: honor our nation renders. On Memorial Day. Nineteen twenty three,
Speaker 1: President Calvin Coolidge said there can be no peace with
Speaker 1: the forces of evil. Peace comes only through the establishment
Speaker 1: of the supremacy of the forces of good. In nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight, President Eisenhower placed soldiers in the tomb from
Speaker 1: World War II and the Korean War, And in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, one hundred years after the first observance, Memorial
Speaker 1: Day was moved to the last Monday in May, and
Speaker 1: that is today. It's a day to honor those who
Speaker 1: gave their all for our country. You're welcome to join
Speaker 1: me today at noon at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery. I
Speaker 1: have more info about that event at Facebook dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash Sunny Radio