Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the summer vacation season and just as with other holidays, we are also enjoined to recall its true meaning – that of honoring the dead who died in service to our country.
I think there's another lesson though, one that is increasingly important – and also overlooked: forgiveness.
The American Civil War was a remarkably brutal conflict, and historians are still marveling at the breadth of its destruction. In recent years demographic research indicates that the death toll was far higher than usually reported, and even the revised numbers cannot be taken for sure given the poor communications and far-flung scope of the fighting.
What is remarkable is how quickly the two sides reconciled. There was no prolonged guerilla conflict, or periodic rebellion as each new generation came of age and decided to take up arms in the manner of their ancestors.
This process was not perfect, and in some ways it is still underway, though the grievances aired today no longer tie back to the conflict but instead contemporary politics.
For example, the presence of statues honoring the dead of both sides on battlefields and in cemeteries is a classic sign of peace. Demanding one side's monuments be removed is the opposite of building unity, and in fact it's a time-tested way to reignite conflict.
This Memorial Day, we should turn our hearts to seeing statues of the Blue and Gray for what they truly are: enduring symbols of how a people can tear themselves asunder, fight to the last bloody inch, and then become one again. We need more of it.
Chateau Lloyd 
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