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CNN Live Today

Memorial Day Much More than a Picnic

Aired May 27, 2002 - 14:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: What Memorial Day means is often obscured from the smoke from the outdoor grill. Nothing wrong with fun, of course. But as CNN's Bruce Morton reminds us, this day is much more than a picnic.

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BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The day started after the Civil War, in different places. Sometimes Union graves decorated, sometimes Confederate. The first one at Arlington National Cemetery was in 1868, three years after the war ended. And people put flowers on the graves of soldiers from both armies.

That's the thing about memorials -- good ones, anyway -- they're a sign of reconciliation, of coming to terms. Here in Washington, they're building a World War II memorial. Most Americans approved of that war. But the city holds memorials to the Korean War -- less approval for that one -- and Vietnam, which bitterly divided us.

Some of the names on the black wall must belong to those who believed in the war and went willingly. Others, to people who opposed it but thought it was their duty to go anyway. And pro- and anti-war vets now march in the parades -- reconciliation again.

President Bush is in Europe, where there are some less tangible memorials. The Marshall Plan, after World War II, was meant to make western Europe prosperous, which it did. And NATO was meant to make it free, and it did. And now NATO and Russia are forging links with one another -- reconciliation again.

Remembering the Marshall Plan and NATO, you wonder what kind of memorial the U.S.-led coalition will leave in Afghanistan, a country savaged by a series of armies, a country without a common language, a common heritage. Reconciliation could be tough there.

And could there ever, do you think, be a memorial both sides would honor in Jerusalem or Israel, or the West Bank? Hard to imagine.

At home we honor all who went to all the wars, whether the cause seemed good or wrong to them. The men and women who submerged whatever doubts they had and said, well, if the country wants me, I'd better go. Presidents and generals make policy. Veterans mostly just said, OK, I'm here. Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

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