Memorial Day not just a news item around here

Lou Marzeles
Editor and Publisher

     Memorial Day. For many it’s come to mean the first bookend holiday of the summer season, with Labor Day the closing bookend. Its significance is, of course, much deeper; and nowhere is that significance more closely realized than in American small towns—such as Goldendale.
     In metropolitan regions, for many people, Memorial Day is often marked by a few minutes of TV news coverage about a small observance of the occasion somewhere in the city. “Oh, yeah,” viewers basking in the afterglow of outdoor barbecues often remark, “it was Memorial Day.” This year there was the added controversy of President Obama not observing the holiday at Arlington National Cemetery, despite the fact that Presidents Reagan and both Bushes missed Arlington on several Memorial Days.
     Here in our back yard, the meaning of Memorial Day runs deep and strong. It is more pronounced this year, in the wake of the painful loss of Mark Coleman so recently. As the American Legion ceremony took place at the Centerville Cemetery Monday, there was a powerful poignancy in hearing “Taps” lingering softly in the quiet air not far from Mark’s final resting place, honoring his sacrifice with that of so many Americans before him.
     This is an area steeped in honor and respect for tradition. Here, Memorial Day isn’t something you watch on the news, from a distance and with some inarticulate urban insulation. Here, it’s a living day of remembrance that draws community together in a stronger bond. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was no more eloquent that the tangible emotions here on Monday.