Happy Memorial Day!!!

Dear Readers,

Happy Memorial Day! So let us celebrate the brave men and women who have lain down their lives to make this nation free! Let us not take advantage of our liberty, and let us all remember what this holiday is really about!

Hats Off!

by

Henry Holcomb Bennett

Hats off!

Along the street their comes

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,

A flash of colour beneath the sky:

Hats off!

The flag is passing by.

Blue and crimson and white it shines,

Over the steel-tipped ordered lines.

Hats off!

The colours before us fly;

But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land fights, grim and great,

Fought to make and save the State:

Wear marches and sinking ships;

Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;

March of the strong land's swift increase;

Equal justice, right, and law,

Stately honour and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong

To ward her people from foreign wrong:

Pride and glory and honour, -all

Live in the colours to stand or fall.

Hats off!

Along the street there comes

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;

And loyal hearts are beating high:

Hats off!

The flag is passing by!

God Save the Flag

by

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,

Snatched by the altars of insolent foes,

Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,

Flash with broad ribbons of lily and rose.

Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it,

Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;

Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,

Emblem of justice and mercy to all:

Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,

Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,

Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,

Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.

Borne on the deluge of old usurpations,

Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas,

Bearing the rainbow of hope to the nations,

Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!

God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders,

While its broad folds o'er the batte-field wave,

Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,

Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!

Again, happy Memorial Day, everybody!

May the Lord bless your day!

Your sister in Christ,

Grace