Memorial Day Entrepreneur Links

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-05-31 10:11:00 UTC
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Memorial Day began in 1868 as a remembrance of soldiers who fell during the long and grueling American Civil War. Today, it is mostly associated with three-day weekends, massive shopping discounts, and as the official beginning of the summer. Many of the stories I'm seeing today are somehow focused on the divide between what the holiday meant -- and still means to some -- and how it is experienced by most of America.

Memorial Day: One Holiday, Two Countries: Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) founder Paul Rieckhoff discusses how bipolar this holiday feels -- easy and fun for some, but a somber day of remembrance for others. Rieckhoff worries that the lack of personal experience with war that characterizes most Americans leads us to under-provide for our veterans.

The Mission Continues: This isn't a post, but an extremely cool organization which goes a step beyond remembering veterans to actually find ways for wounded vets to continue serving their country and communities. The emotional impact of losing a limb in war can be as damaging in the long run as the loss of mobility, and we need more thinking like that displayed by this organization.

Reinventing Memorial Day: Beyond the Mattress Blowout Sale: Fast Company has put together a series of pieces about the particular duality of this holiday. The thrust of the series is to ask what it would mean to move away from a commercialized holiday and back to something rooted in the deeper history and meaning of the day.

Reinventing Memorial Day: Solutions for Silence and Sacrifice: This Fast Company piece, part of the series mentioned above, ponders ways that social networks could contribute to a shift in our thinking about Memorial Day, and proposes a digital minute of silence.

All of these pieces bring up the larger question of the commodification of sentiment. Does it cheapen holidays to have them become just an excuse for a sale? The short answer is pretty much yes. That said, Memorial Day seems, more than some of its other commercialized peers, to be a day where the sales loose out to the joy of drinking, eating, and being together and taking a moment away from the hustle. That might be a good place to begin returning the conversation to the sacrifice of servicemen and women who have died fighting to keep America a place where Memorial Day can be free, safe, and happy.

Photo credit: The U.S. Army

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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