At 3 p.m., Americans asked to take a minute to reflect.

[metsfan]

(CNN) -- Americans are being asked to stop whatever they are doing at 3 p.m. local time Monday to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom.

 

Americans are being asked to take one minute at 3 p.m. Monday to pause and reflect on those who died in battle.

 

"The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday," according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance.

 

"The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom," the Commission on Remembrance said on its Web site.

 

"It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans."

 

Observances are to include an interruption of Major League Baseball games; the pausing of the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington; and the National Grocers Association and Food Marketing Institute asking shoppers to pause in stores nationwide to remember the fallen.

 

"We want our citizens to contemplate the ties that bind us and take a moment to put 'Memorial' back into Memorial Day," said Carmella LaSpada, executive director of the Commission on Remembrance.

 

Children touring Washington inspired the idea when LaSpada asked them what Memorial Day meant and they said that's when the swimming pool opens, according to the commission's Web site.

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My grandfather, his brother, and my cousin all were part of world war 2, and not a day goes by that i don't think about them & what they did to allow me to even exist, and have a country to live in, and a world to live in that was better off than they found it.

 

My uncle was a machine gunner, he received 2 service medals, one purple heart, and one for something that is unclear. He landed in germany 2 weeks after D-day.

 

My grandfather was in the signal corps, and was in the unit that cracked the german code the second time & allowed the allies to enter berlin and single handedly during several periods of manuvering saved several hundred allied troops lives by intercepting a message. He received the army's distinguished service cross and a presidential citation for breaking the code along with the handful of other men in his unit. He landed D-day +6 because he was a vitally needed code breaker.

 

My cousin died in the first wave on the beaches of normandy. He has a grave marker somewhere in the WW2 cemeteries in france near the coast. I am trying to save up enough to go and see where that may be located.

 

You can think what you want about war, military, violence. Truth is, that without heros such as those listed above, this world would be much worse off. It fills me with pride that i can say that i'm related to those gentlemen.

 

I will be observing a moment of silence. It's the least i can do to honor their memory, which is what this day is all about.

 

- Andy

[Maserati7200]

I always think about the soldiers who died protecting our freedom on Memorial Day. It's a shame how commercialized it became with shopping deals, and people treating it like an everyday vacation.

[R68 Subway Car]

Amen! Honor the brave men and women that served this great nation!