Finneran: Memorial Day, 2019

Friday, May 24, 2019

Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Life was simpler back then.

There were fewer distractions then, fewer efforts to commercialize an otherwise somber day. There were parades to honor those who served and gun volleys for those who fell. There were cookouts too, in celebration of the freedoms fought for and won by others.

Very few families had a cabin in New Hampshire or a cottage on the Cape. We were happily grounded in our parishes and neighborhoods, all of them playing host to active veterans’ posts.

I can clearly recall former Congressman Brian Donnelly’s observation that this particular holiday---Memorial Day---held great emotional and historic significance for many families and that it should never be viewed as just another “three day weekend”. Brian knew that wounds and death and honor and service were the foundations of the day, never to be overtaken by the next big sale of junk we do not need.

The parades themselves were somber affairs. There were no balloons or clowns or jugglers. Rather there would be a military band and the footfall of former soldiers marching in quiet formation. Their synchronized strides captured the attention of children and their focused mien earned the respect of the adults.

Perhaps this weekend you’ll see a veteran decorating graves. Perhaps you’ll view a parade. Perhaps you’ll meet a Gold Star Mother. Perhaps you can offer a prayer on behalf of someone who is no longer with us. If so, respect and gratitude are the essential elements of such moments.

The two attached stories try to capture the lifelong debt we owe to others. One of them is my column written for GoLocal last year. The other is Kevin Cullen’s eloquent tribute to the living and the dead.

I hope that they make your day and your weekend very special.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio