U.S. Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) is doing what he can to ensure people remember what Memorial Day is all about.
Guest introduced a resolution Friday in honor of Monday’s holiday. The resolution expresses that the House of Representatives “calls on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day as a special day of remembrance to honor the men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace.”
“We can never repay the debt we owe the men and women who gave their lives for our great nation, but we can remain committed to the values they fought and died for – values such as hard work, determination, and truth,” Guest said. “We must always remember that we are blessed to be citizens of this great republic, to live in a nation that was divinely inspired, and to call this land our home.”
While announcing the resolution, Guest also noted that although multiple locations claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, Mississippi’s city of Columbus is often cited as a potential early origin.
Following the end of the Civil War, a group of Columbus women honored both the late Confederate and Union soldiers by placing flowers on their graves at Friendship Cemetery – an act that is believed by some to have led to the holiday being observed nationally.
The Memorial Day resolution introduced by Guest was cosponsored by more than 40 members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, at the time of introduction.
