Long before President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y. as the birthplace of Memorial Day with a presidential proclamation in 1966, individual towns and cities had been observing a day in late May as Memorial Day.

In fact, towns had been decorating the graves of the Civil War dead even before that great and personal conflict had ended. The first officially declared observance of Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day, because of the grave decorations) was May 30, 1868 as people marked the graves of Union and Confederate dead alike in Arlington National Cemetery. Now the holiday honors any Americans who died in a conflict in which the United States has been involved.

Although Memorial Day, which falls on May 25 this year (always on the last Monday in May), is a national holiday, at its philosophical roots, the day should be one best observed on the local - town and city - level.

Why?

Because those are our townspeople interred in the local graveyards, not Jimmie Monteith Jr., George A. Buchanan, William Maud Bryant, Charles G. Abrell or Albert E. Baesel. They are people that in many cases, have names familiar in our communities, with relatives still around. Like other places, this is true in Barnwell County too.

Who are these people?

Army 1st Lt. Monteith repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire while directing soldiers during the D-Day invasion, June 6, 1944 in France.

Army Private Buchanan died while attacking Confederate cannons while forward of the Union lines at Chapins Farm in 1864.

1st Sgt. Bryant, with the 5th Special Forces Group, rallied his surrounded troops; distributed ammunition while under fire; directed attacks and singlehandedly attacked an enemy position during a battle in the Long Khanh province in Vietnam. He died on the battlefield.

Already wounded, Marine Cpl. Abrell threw himself into a North Korean bunker while carrying a live grenade to eliminate its threat in Hangnyong, Korea in 1951.

Army 2nd Lt. Baesel died in Ivoiry, France during World War I trying to rescue a wounded soldier while under heavy fire in 1918.

All these men were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest award.

Not all who served and died during American conflicts received such a high honor. Many just served and some died during that service.

For thousands of families across this land, our nation's wars are still unclosed books as their relatives were listed as missing in action or prisoners of war. As with any war, MIAs and POWs occur. Even more recently, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, there is one MIA and one POW according to official sources. During the Persian Gulf War, there were three MIAs officially noted.

His detractors are crying that Obama is plunging the country into a debt it can't repay with the stimulus packages.
Yet already we are a nation in debt - paid with a high price of blood by those in uniform.

We can't repay a debt like that - but we can return the interest on it by honoring Memorial Day in the spirit it was intended.