Members of American Legion Post No. 558 made their annual Memorial Day trek to Gate of Heaven cemetery in Los Altos to pay homage to lives lost in service to this country.
“Memorial Day is one day we set aside to say, ‘Thank you,'” said Lewis Miller, present commander of the post. Miller traced the holiday’s roots back to 1866, when widows of Confederate soldiers noted that graves of those veterans often fell victim to neglect. “They placed flowers not only on their husbands’ graves, but on their former enemies’,” Miller said.
The first official recognition of Memorial Day came two years later, in 1868, when a Waterloo, New York, druggist suggested an honor should be given in memory of the dead from the Civil War. In 1971, Congress expanded the tradition to include all military personnel who died in service to the nation, with the last Monday in May designated as the holiday.
Miller said in these times of peace and a strong economy, “it is so very easy to forget why we are a free people. So it is our duty, as veterans and as patriots who love this land, to ensure that everyone that breathes the fresh air of freedom is reminded of the price paid and of those who paid it.”
He added: “Memorial Day is about many things, family gatherings, picnics, but it is mostly about refusing to forget. We can never repay the debt we owe to these brave men and women, yet we can strive to glorify their vision which led them into battle and to their final sacrifice.”
