Memorial Day

It was an entirely patriotic service, today, at church. Dough and Mary-Lou are back. It felt good. The congregation had carried together a list of over forty active members in the armed forces - including Reserves and US Marshals. The biggest group was the Army (12). The smallest the Air Force. The Marines had eight in their ranks from the community. There is one family that has eight active members in the forces, four in the Army, two each in the Navy and Air Force. I don't know if they are all brothers and sisters, or if there are cousins mixed in.

Steve is being counted among the active Marines. The women had made yellow ribbons with name tags and everybody took one or two and as the names were read the holder of ribbon and tag would go forward and tie the ribbon to one of the decorative trees in the pulpit area. For each service, the organ played their song, but softly. There were also some five retired members who were called to stand up and be counted.

In the course of the service we learned that already over a hundred and fifty years ago, somebody petitioned to have the Bible removed from public schools. The Supreme Court, in 1844, ruled against it, saying "to learn the meaning of morals, kindness and love, the New Testament is the very best source".

What happened since then? The negative trend continued until we now have - a low of morals, kindness, and love . . .

Have a happy Memorial Day, all of you.   Much Love, Isa