Memorial Day is meant to honor and remember those men and women who gave their ultimate sacrifice and died fighting for our freedom, and while we honor those who have fallen, it’s also important to remember the complexities of grief for those they left behind.
The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic which is a mental health clinic that has been providing services specifically tailored to military families. The clinic aims to address the unique mental health needs and challenges faced by military service members, veterans, and their families. It offers a range of services, including individual and family therapy, couples counseling, support groups, and psychiatric services. The clinic’s goal is to improve the mental health and well-being of military families by providing accessible and high-quality mental health care. The services provided by the clinic are often available at little to no cost to eligible military families.
The director of the clinic, Marybeth Goodman, states that it’s important to remember how Memorial Day can affect those people who have lost loved ones. Then Marybeth went saying, some ways to honor the fallen this Memorial Day is to place wreaths at grave sites, participate in a cleanup project at a local VFW or local American Legion, or even simply lending a listening ear to someone who is struggling.
“One of the best ways to address Memorial Day head on is to simply not say, ‘Happy Memorial Day,’ Goodman states. “And I know that sounds trite, but for a lot of people it’s not happy. It’s a day of reflection, it’s a day of remembering.” It’s a wonderful opportunity to teach the younger generations about some of our history, some of the tragic loss, but also remember why we are allowed to be in this free country,” Goodman claims.
If you’re planning to travel on Memorial day you should expect it to be the third-busiest holiday weekend since 2000 in terms of travel. Remember to check road conditions too, and also plan ahead for major traffic and hiccups at the airport. For those who are choosing to spend some time locally, you should expect high temperatures in the valley just under 100 degrees throughout the weekend. If you plan on being outdoors, authorities are reminding residents to practice water safety and take precautions when exposed to extreme heat.
The Miller fire in the Coconino Forest has caused several trail closures along The Secret Canyon Trail. Officials also have issued trail closures and they are advising the visitors to remain out of this area for the safety of the crews and the public. There are some trail closures within Sedona’s Red Rock Secret Mountain region and which we are including bellows:
Secret Canyon Trail #121
HS Canyon Trail #50
David Miller Trail #164
Bear Sign Trail #59
Dry Creek Trail #52
Long Canyon Trail #122
History of Memorial Day
Now someone might be wondering what to do. In metro Phoenix, you can go to The Arizona Military History Museum or a pool party at talking Stick resort, The options are plentiful. Because Memorial Day weekend is expected to be busier than most usual, the third-busiest since 2000 in terms of travel, according to AAA. So in order to help with traffic, the Arizona Department of Transportation said it wouldn’t conduct any freeway road closures, like it typically does on weekends to work on roadway improvement projects. To ensure the utmost safety while on the road, ADOT reminded drivers to heed some of these tips:
- Never drive while impaired. Buckle up and obey speed limits.
- Arrange for a designated driver or ride service if necessary.
- Check your vehicle, including tire pressure.
- Get some rest before traveling. Fatigue is a serious safety risk.
- Avoid distractions. Don’t text while driving.
- Don’t park in areas with grasses and brush. Hot vehicle components could start a fire.
As per Sunday’s weather it might Showers with the stuck low will likely persist from parts of the coastal Carolinas and the central and southern Appalachians to as far north as Washington, D.C. Another round of thunderstorms will flourish from the High Plains to the northern Rockies and California’s Sierra Nevada. It’s possible some of those storms in the Plains could turn severe.New England, the Great Lakes, much of the Mississippi Valley, the Southwest and West Coast should once again escape any threat of rain.
In Boston ,Some 37,000 American flags were lined on Memorial Day, representing Massachusetts military members who died in service from the Revolutionary War to the present. Unlike Veterans Day, this holiday honors those who lost their lives serving the United States. Some people question who even started the memorial day, as even the origins of Memorial Day remain debated,and more controversial. Some scholars have also noted that the participants of decorating graves with flowers on the specific days in spring is an ancient custom, and thus represent the true roots of the holiday. However, most say that the holiday began in the bloody wake of the nation’s most distressing time, The Civil War.
The U.S. Civil War was devastating for many families . By both sides of the conflict nearly 500,000 men died, about 2 percent of the U.S. population at the time. During the battle of Gettysburg, the Union and Confederacy lost more than 7,000 people. That we still feel sad and grief about . Then the conflict ended in( April 1865) in subsequent years with women, especially in the South. That begin the questions tending to the graves of fallen soldiers who are often regardless of which side they fought for. Their willingness to overlook past divisions was lauded in newspapers in the North. Their kindness was viewed as an olive branch to many, including northerner Francis Miles Finch, who in 1867 wrote the popular poem “The Blue and The Grey” praising those efforts.
That specific movement sparked the first Memorial Day remains a matter of debate now ? Some say the first Memorial Day took place on (May 1, 1865). When a large group of freed “African Americans” held a parade in Charleston, South Carolina, to honor fallen Union soldiers. Dozens of other cities around the country claim the title, too, for their early Civil War remembrance ceremonies. Still other observers have pointed to President Abraham Lincoln’s commemoration of the dead at Gettysburg in 1863 as a possible origin of the holiday.