It's more than hot dogs and the so called beginning of the summer season. One of the fond things I remember when growing up, seems that there are a lot more fond things now that I remember. One of which was stores being closed on Sunday....Back to the topic, as the mind wanders.....One of the things I remember was going out to a large cemetery which was located in San Bruno and locating a few markers and putting flags at their foundation.
My father was a veteran and I remember looking at his photo album of him around monuments of places in Berlin. They didn't mean much to me then, but now with all the crap going around I wish I could have talked to him more about it.
He had a few friends that we would place flags at their markers. Don't confuse Flag day or Veterans Day with Memorial Day or Decoration Day as it was originally called.
I don't see the same reverence and respect that people showed for our fallen solders nowadays. It's only about BBQ's and getting ripped with your "buds" on with your favorite beverage.
Originally the holiday was made to commemorate the soldiers that gave their lives during the civil war. It got changed after World War ! to honor those who had died in all of Americas wars, and only in 1971 did it declared it a national holiday to be celebrated the last Monday in May. Don't get it confused with Veterans Day which is a special day set aside to honor all veterans, living and dead on November 11.
One of the most emotional things that I have experienced was seeing the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. Seeing all the names was something quite emotional. It was hard not to walk away without developing tears in your eyes. I guess we can call that my generation's war, then next we had the Iraq war and now we have the Afghanistan war.......great was a great way to chronicle times in history.......You would think that something else could be devloped to settle an argument?
In Mexico I am sure they have some holiday to commemorate fallen soldiers... ( Hint.... Bob, our resident historian),.but then again thinking of how Mexico celebrates, that may be every party after an hour or so.....
So since in my small way of remembering those souls that gave their life for an idea, a concept and a belief, a moment of reflection and thanks!
And let's figure out a way to stop this kind of foolish loss of lives.....
6 comments:
Tancho,
Here in Mexico they spread the memorials out out a bit. Army Day is 19th of February (includes the Air Force), Navy Day is June 1st, Los Niños Héroes Day is September 13th and of course all of the dead are honored on El Dia de los Muertos on November 2nd. Mexico does not dwell as much on dead veterans of foreign wars as we Americans do because oficially Mexico has no declared foreign nation enemies and little ambition to impose itself upon other countries. It repudiates the use of force to settle disputes and tries to avoid the conflict brought on by the interference of one nation in the affairs of another.
Thank You! I knew I could count on your skills of your vast volumes of your personal knowledge base!
Stop this foolish loss of life? You mean the Holy Grail of "No More War"?
Never gonna happen, of course.
Yes, I know Felipe, but just think of all the money that it would save, less taxes etc, if they figured out another way to settle the arguments. Then I would have to sell Halliburton stock....
All wish for the absence of war. But I fa Plato was corct: "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Interesting how things escalate, but when you step back and look at the real cause, they are pretty insignificant in the big scheme of things.....
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