By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Memorial Day has come and gone. Originally called Decoration Day, it is a day on which we remember and honor those men and women who have died in service to our nation.

Unfortunately, Memorial Day lasts but one day and then most of us put it aside until next year. With Americans involved in wars and conflicts all over the world, we should all remember the sentiments the day represents every single day of the year, not just one, until every conflict in which an American is involved is over and our service-men and -women have returned home.

Gen. John Logan officially proclaimed Memorial Day on May 5, 1868, and the country first observed it on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of the dead soldiers, North and South, at Arlington National Cemetery. While every state in the North recognized and commemorated Memorial Day, many Southern states originally refused to recognize the day to honor the fallen. Many even set their own days on which to honor slain Confederate soldiers.

Nevertheless, by the end of World War I every state in the country was on the same page — the day had evolved from a day to remember only Civil War dead, to a day to honor all American service-people who died fighting in any war.

With the passage of the National Holiday Act in 1971, Memorial Day is now officially celebrated on the last Monday in May – especially significant this year since it fell on May 30.

Unfortunately, the traditional meaning of Memorial Day has dimmed for far too many Americans. An overwhelming number view the day only as the first three-day weekend of the summer and the first opportunity of the year to stoke up the barbecue.

Yet, of all areas in the nation, rural America is most likely to recall what the day is really all about. For many rural families, there is no such thing as a three-day weekend, but many, if not most, take the time to participate in a Memorial Day service, to commemorate the holiday as it was originally intended.

Perhaps it’s because rural America bears so much of the brunt of battlefield deaths.

Statistically, while rural America has only 16 percent of the country’s population, it provides 44 percent of all military personnel, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. As a result, rural communities are much more likely to have family members killed in service to our country.

Simply put, Vilsack says country people, rural Americans, are most cognizant of the concept of “giving back.”

Rural America understands you can’t just keep taking from the nation, reaping its benefits and rewards without returning something, he says. “You instill in your youngsters an understanding and a responsibility to give something back and it’s reflected in their service.”

Some 600,000 were killed in the Civil War, America’s deadliest conflict. World War I claimed 100,000; World War II more than 400,000; some 54,000 were killed in Korea, with more than 58,000 slain in Vietnam and still counting.

The number of American dead in Iraq and Afghanistan is over 6,000 with no end apparent in the near future.

In 2000, Congress passed the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution. Its purpose is to remind and re-educate Americans about the true meaning for Memorial Day.

The resolution asks that at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day Americans, “Voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to taps.”

While it’s commendable that we remember the true meaning of Memorial Day, it is a tragedy beyond measure, albeit an often necessary one, that we continue to lose Americans to war.

We should honor and remember that loss daily not just one day a year.