By By Lydia Grimes – features reporter
Doug O'Barr, director of the City of Brewton Information Technology Department, and Stephen Yuhasz, community development director, have combined their knowledge and ideas to create a Memorial Day program cable subscribers can see on Channel 6.
O'Barr and Yuhasz met with representatives of the Department of Veteran's Affairs to come up with a plan to put their ideas into motion.
Through the cooperation of those involved in the plan, the group has composed a Memorial Day tribute titled “Memorial Day: Remembering Our Fallen Heroes.”
The program will air through Memorial Day on local access channel.
Personal copies of the 23 minute program may be purchased for $10 at Brewton Municipal Complex.
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and began in the aftermath of the Civil War, according to information concerning the holiday. There are many who believe it began when organized groups of women in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War.
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868, by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
After World War I, the holiday changed to include honoring soldiers who died fighting in any war, not just the Civil War. In 1971, a law was passed in Congress to change the holiday to the last Monday in May, to ensure a three-day weekend for federal holidays.
In recent years the real meaning of Memorial Day has been lost, and many people look on it as just another long weekend holiday. Some exceptions do occur. Since the late 1950s, the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of more than 260,000 gravestones in Arlington Cemetery, and then patrol the area 24 hours a day to make sure the flags are undisturbed.
The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in many areas place either flags or candles in various cemeteries. In 2004, Washington D.C. held a Memorial Day parade for the first time in over 60 years.
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance “ resolution was passed in December of 2000. This asks that all Americans stop and spend a moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time to remember the fallen soldiers and to give them the honor they deserve.