Page 1 - Beacon 5-22-15

Vol. 80, No. 20
NEWS BRIEFS
RIVERSIDE NATIONAL
CEMETERY MEMORIAL
DAY WEEKEND EVENTS
American Flag Placement –
Saturday, May 23, 8 a.m.
Several thousand Southern
Californians will converge on
Riverside National Cemetery
with the goal of placing an Amer-
ican Flag on each of the nearly
180,000 gravesites. To volunteer,
be at RNC at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
The Roll Call Project – Sun-
day, May 24, 9 a.m.
For the sixth consecutive year, their fallen comrades with flowers, flags
selected volunteers will gather
at the cemetery flagpole plaza to
read aloud the names of the more
than 5,000 Veterans who have
been interred between June 1,
2014 and May 24, 2015. All are
welcome to attend.
Memorial Day Ceremony – A
Salute to Fallen Heroes, Monday,
May 25, 11 a.m.
Introductions will be followed
by Bradley Phillips, executive di- American Legion, have been fighting to
rector of the National Cemetery
Administration’s Memorial Ser-
vice Network 5 as the keynote
speaker. There will be a special
presentation by American Legion
high school oratorical scholarship
program two-time winner, Amir
Shahatit, who will read his award-
winning essay. Musical accompa-
niment for the program will begin
at 10:30 a.m. by the Riverside
Concert Band. Military honors
will be provided by the California
National Guard.
AMERICAN RED CROSS
MOBILE APPS
The American Red Cross of-
fers free mobile apps to help you
and your loved ones be better
prepared for and to respond to
emergencies, big and small. To
download, visit redcross.org/apps,
test ‘APPS’ to 90999, or search
‘American Red Cross’ in your
mobile app store.
See BRIEFS page 3
March Air Reserve Base, California
Seven little known facts about Memorial Day
As Americans get ready to observe Me-
morial Day with travel, family get-togeth-
ers and celebrations, let us not forget—it’s December 2000, Congress passed a law re-
not about the BBQ.
Memorial Day is observed specifically
to remember those who gave the ultimate
sacrifice in service to the United States of
America, and to observe a moment of si-
lence is the law.
Here are seven little known facts about
Memorial Day.
What’s in a name?
Decoration Day, the original name for
the late May holiday, was created to honor
the deceased. Soldiers decorated graves of
and wreaths. In the 1880s, the official title
changed but it wasn’t until 1967 that it of- states officially set aside a day to honor
ficially became Memorial Day.
Save the date!
When the Civil War ended, General
John Logan, commander of the Grand
Army of the Republic, asked for a holiday
to commemorate fallen soldiers to be ob-
served each May 30. When the Uniform
Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1971,
Memorial Day was moved to the last
Monday of May to ensure long weekends.
However, some veterans’ groups, like the
restore the original date to set the day
apart and pay proper tribute to the ser-
vicemen and women who sacrificed their
lives defending the nation.
Friday, May 22, 2015
It’s the law! a contentious debate, with other towns, like
Although not common knowledge, In Boalsburg, Penn., claiming the title of “Birth-
place of Memorial Day” as well.
quiring Americans to pause at 3 p.m. local
time on Memorial Day to remember and A weekend getaway!
honor the fallen. According to AAA travel, more than 37.2
Speech! Speech! million Americans will travel over the Me-
Of course then it was still called Decora- morial Day holiday weekend, the most in a
tion Day, and at the time, Garfield was a Civil decade, and 4.7 percent more than last year.
War General and Republican Congressman, So, remember to follow the law and
not yet a President. On May 30, 1868, he stop wherever you are and whatever you
addressed the several thousand people gath- are doing at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 25,
ered at Arlington National Cemetery. “If si- to remember those who gave it all for
lence is ever golden,” Garfield said, “it must our freedoms.
be beside the graves of 15,000 men, whose Happy Memorial Day!
lives were more significant than speech, and
whose death was a poem the music of which
can never be sung.”
More than one Memorial Day?
In addition to the national holiday, nine
those who died fighting for the Confedera-
cy in the Civil War: Texas, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Loui-
siana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.
The days vary, but only Virginia observes
Confederate Memorial Day on the last
Monday of May, in accordance with the
federal observance of Memorial Day.
A New York state of mind
According to the N.Y. town’s website, in
1966 Congress unanimously passed a reso-
lution to officially recognize Waterloo as the
birthplace of the holiday. However, it remains