REMEMBER THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR OUR FREEDOM.

Byline: JAMES BEMIS

For students, Memorial Day signals the bell lap ending another school year. Moms, viewing the kids' approaching summer vacation with the same anticipation they do receiving child-rearing advice from in-laws, swear the long weekend comes around twice as fast as any other day of the year. Dads know Father's Day, the one day they don't feel underappreciated and overworked, is just around the corner. Astute shoppers search for bargains on hot dogs, charcoal and beer.

For most people, Memorial Day starts the clock ticking toward their two-week vacation, and those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. (Apologies to Nat King Cole.) Have we forgotten anybody?

As a matter of fact, we have.

Formerly called Decoration Day, Memorial Day was established in 1868 by Gen. John A. Logan, commander of the Union Army. It was meant, Logan said, to be a day for ``strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.''

So on May 30 of each year (later changed to the last Monday in May), he proposed that our nation would ``at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime, and let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor.''

Despite the good intentions of Logan, I'm afraid that in the crush of picnics, softball games and backyard barbecues, we've lost track of who Memorial Day is intended to memorialize - those who gave their lives for this country.

Maybe it's a sign of our times, but it surely does not reflect well on us that such an important and solemn occasion is now regarded so lightly. I suspect that few people visit the grave of a veteran on this holiday to remember and give thanks. Even fewer attend parades or other public events commemorating the fallen members of our armed forces.

Most people can't seem to spare the time. Don't bother trying to go to a movie that day, though, because theaters will likely be packed.

Ironically, our complacency toward the military stems largely from its very success. National defense is no longer much on our minds. Communism is everywhere fleeing in failure and disgrace, the big bad Russian bear no longer threatens, and China presently poses no danger - due, in large part, to our seemingly invincible combat forces. Our nation's borders never seemed more secure.

But this is all the more reason for us - not threatened by invasion or conflict, no nuclear sword hanging over our heads - to reflect on why the abundant fruits of freedom are available to us.

In a great measure, it is because many Americans answered their nation's call to duty on behalf of their compatriots - past, present and future - asking that they now repay their forefathers' sacrifices with those of their own. To their credit, they responded. To our shame, we've forgotten.

Logan knew how quickly the losses of war could pass from memory and so proposed a national day of remembrance. ``If other eyes should grow dull and other hands slack and other hearts cold in solemn trust,'' he said, ``ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remains in us.''

May our eyes never grow dull nor our hands slack nor our hearts cold toward the duty we owe to honor our protectors. We may no longer be able to thank our dead heroes, but it is never too late to remember them.