# Memorial Day in the USA



## Bill Mattocks (May 27, 2011)

Once again, I urge Americans to find their local Memorial Day observance and attend it.  Maybe put a few US flags on graves of veterans who died in the service of our nation.

We all say we 'support the troops,' but frankly I think it's nothing but BS for most of us.  It's just another day off work for most.

I can't tell you how depressed I get when I go to the local observance and see how low the public turnout is.  You say you support the troops?  Show it, get off your lazy half-moons and demonstrate it. A bumper sticker on the back of your car doesn't mean squat to me.


----------



## LuckyKBoxer (May 27, 2011)

funny, your constant whining and complaining because people dont think like you or act how you want them to act means squat to me as well.
Its Memorial Day, everyone can choose to spend it how they want, and a poor attempt to guilt people into doing it your way does nothing.


----------



## bushidomartialarts (May 27, 2011)

My wife and I take Memorial day to spend time with my grandfather. Others do the parade. Others might opt for a brief moment of reflection about how much we owe those who fought and died to give us what we have today.

I agree that it's important to remember why we get a day off from work...but different observances are equally valid.


----------



## Touch Of Death (May 27, 2011)

LuckyKBoxer said:


> funny, your constant whining and complaining because people dont think like you or act how you want them to act means squat to me as well.
> Its Memorial Day, everyone can choose to spend it how they want, and a poor attempt to guilt people into doing it your way does nothing.


Memorial Day is not the time to attack veterans for expressing their views about memorial day. Of that, I am sure. If it brings out negative vibes, no body will blame you for not posting.
Sean


----------



## granfire (May 27, 2011)

A community near here always put up flags on the median leading through town. 
It's a stunning sight (too bad the pictures I snapped never show how great)

Other than that there are a couple of guys important to my husband.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (May 27, 2011)

Every single person who died for our nation would prefer to have lived.  One day a year is small enough a sacrifice to say "thank you" to them and their posterity for their lives, in my opinion.




Detroit Veterans Day Parade 2009 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr




Veterans Day, November 11, 2007 by Wigwam Jones, on Flickr


----------



## Blade96 (May 27, 2011)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Once again, I urge Americans to find their local Memorial Day observance and attend it.  Maybe put a few US flags on graves of veterans who died in the service of our nation.
> 
> We all say we 'support the troops,' but frankly I think it's nothing but BS for most of us.  It's just another day off work for most.
> 
> I can't tell you how depressed I get when I go to the local observance and see how low the public turnout is.  You say you support the troops?  Show it, get off your lazy half-moons and demonstrate it. A bumper sticker on the back of your car doesn't mean squat to me.



You guys have more days than just november 11 to remember the soldiers?


----------



## Bill Mattocks (May 27, 2011)

Blade96 said:


> You guys have more days than just november 11 to remember the soldiers?



Veteran's Day is for all veterans.  Memorial Day is to remember those who died serving our nation.  There is also Armed Forces Day, which is less publicized and not a federal holiday, which is to honor those currently serving.  Of the three, Veteran's Day gets the most publicity.  Memorial Day is less a celebration than it is a somber remembrance.

In the USA, Memorial Day has become synonymous with the beginning of summer; Labor Day (set aside to honor those who get their backs into their living) heralds the end of summer.


----------



## Blade96 (May 27, 2011)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Veteran's Day is for all veterans.  Memorial Day is to remember those who died serving our nation.  There is also Armed Forces Day, which is less publicized and not a federal holiday, which is to honor those currently serving.  Of the three, Veteran's Day gets the most publicity.  Memorial Day is less a celebration than it is a somber remembrance.
> 
> In the USA, Memorial Day has become synonymous with the beginning of summer; Labor Day (set aside to honor those who get their backs into their living) heralds the end of summer.



Thanks. But i still don't get why america needs 3 days for that.  We have nov 11.


----------



## Sukerkin (May 27, 2011)

I don't want to speak for the American veterans on the board, Blade, as I am sure they can give you a much clearer answer but it seems to me that it is more a case of showing honour to different groups rather than having three days for the same 'reason'.

For us here in Blighty, we have had so many wars and so many dead that if we were to try to honour all seperately we would not have enough days in the year.  So for us, all is set forth on Rememberance Sunday.  It is meant specifically for the end of the First World War but it stands in our hearts for all who fall in the service of the rest of us.

And for some reason, Bill, the second picture you posted above breaks my heart - I can't elucidate clearly on it but it really touches me to see that man bow his head with dignity before the memorial to his fallen fellows.


----------



## Ken Morgan (May 27, 2011)

Hell, we should think about those that died, those that fought and those that serve, daily.
These special days are more of a formality to me.
I dare anyone on a cold November morning, to hear The Last Post  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4NtSqZcT_4
And Amazing Grace on the pipes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yddQeVlfGpk
And not tear up.


----------



## granfire (May 27, 2011)

(I can do without the background music, but was too lazy to search for a better version)


----------



## seasoned (May 27, 2011)

Amid the chatter about the weather forecast, the potato salad recipe and whether the campground is full, a new poll commissioned by The National WWII Museum reveals the nation is in danger of forgetting the real meaning of Memorial Day. 
Eighty percent of Americans surveyed confess to having little or only some knowledge of the military holiday. Just 20 percent of respondents claim to be very familiar with the day and its purpose. 
If youre in the 80 percent: Memorial Day is a federal holiday the last Monday of May honoring those who have died in military service.
Not just a day to get the garden planted or an excuse to grill steak.
Begun in 1868 to remember Civil War soldiers, the remembrance grew to include all Americans who have died in all of the nations wars. 
The poll result is a bummer for Gordon Nick Mueller, president and CEO of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
"As a nation, were in danger of forgetting the days meaning altogether, Mueller says. Today, with Americans fighting in Afghanistan, a time to honor those who give their lives for their country has never been more urgent. Unfortunately, few of us really know the full importance of Memorial Day.


----------



## JohnEdward (May 28, 2011)

Having family members and ancestors who have served and died for this country since before the civil war. Memorial Day is a solemn day of remembrance for all those soldiers who lost their lives fighting for this country, and what it stands for. For us, personally, Memorial Day is the one day that symbolizes that though out the year we have been honoring our family, ancestors and other soldiers who have died fighting.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (May 28, 2011)

Sukerkin said:


> And for some reason, Bill, the second picture you posted above breaks my heart - I can't elucidate clearly on it but it really touches me to see that man bow his head with dignity before the memorial to his fallen fellows.



I can tell you that it is one of the photos I am most proud of, and my eyes were misty as I took that one.  Thank you for the compliment.


----------



## Aiki Lee (May 28, 2011)

I have to work memorial day, but I will be sure to vist the cemetery as I always do.


----------



## Flea (May 28, 2011)

I've mentioned elsewhere that I recently lost a very close friend to suicide.  Neither his death nor our friendship had anything to do with his veteran status, but I think I need to skip any Memorial Day activities this year.  It's just too much right now, and no apologies.  Eventually, when I'm ready, I'll do something in his honor.  Probably a tattoo.


----------



## granfire (May 28, 2011)

While it is a nice thing to have a day set aside for collective rememberance, on a personal level there is really no need to adhere to dates and such.

My deepest sympathy at your loss.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (May 29, 2011)

My photos from today...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigwam/sets/72157626710596059/


----------



## granfire (May 29, 2011)

really nice!


----------



## elder999 (May 29, 2011)

I'm reminded of my post on an old Veteran's Day thread. To me, it's more important to do something for the living, than to remember the dead, though remembering the dead is part of my heritage.

Interestingly, Memorial Day was started as a holiday by Confederate widows, to remember their war dead, and freed slaves, to remember the men who had died for their freedom, after the Civil War, as Decoration Day. My cousin-several times removed, and by four generations-Warren Cuffee served in that war, and even received a letter from Abraham Lincoln.....

Memorial Day, for my family, during my life, has always been the unofficial start of summer. On this weekend, we'd open up the house in Sag Harbor, where we spent the summer vacation. We'd get the boat ready for the season. Come that Monday, though, we'd be at the cemetary, placing flags on the the graves of war dead. My grandfather, who went on to major in Anthropology at Columbia, and become an Episcopal priest, had been something of a hero and, I'm told, a _butcher_, in WWI, receiving the _Croix de Guerre_ for swimming across the Muese river underwater with a communications cable tied to his back, under heavy gas and artillery fire, made a point of remebering those who didn't make it. My father, who served as a Navy chaplain in peacetime, would take me out as a boy to do the very same thing. Memorial Day weekend holds a special place in my heart because of him: he was born on May 29th, and died, after a long illness, on the very same day-so today, I'll remember him, a veteran, though of no war, who died in bed rather than the field of battle, with strawberry shortcake for dessert-his birthday cake of choice. He'd have been 83 years old.

For some time, after coming to New Mexico, one of my teachers and mentors in the Native American Church was Henry Gomez, of Taos Pueblo. Henry was a _trouble maker._ :lol: When he was sent to boarding school-which the government did to Indians to turn them into...well,not _white people_, but defintiely *not Indians*-he was 15 years old. He'd take some of his fellow students, mostly Navajos, out at night, and do the peyote ceremony with them. It's because of him that the Native American Church has 250,000 Dine members-he brought that ceremony to the Navajo people-and I can't express how proud I was when my Dine friend's mother said in a peyote meeting, _Thank you, Creator, for Henry Gomez, and his bringing this ceremony to our people_. Later, still a boy, he was called up to fight in WWII. He went to the Phillipines-saw his unit decimated, and, depending upon who is telling the story, later was captured by-or captured-a band of Negritos, with whom he fought a guerilla action (to hear Henry tell it, long after the stroke that limited his speech, he captured the Negritos with baseball cards: they'd thought he was Japanese until he showed them to them...:lol: ) Odd to see him cry, 60 years after the fact, telling how his Negritos had been gunned down by the Japanese, and he'd been captured. Later, in the prison camp, the Japanese-who were starving themselves-would send Henry (who was an Indian, and must know how to hunt) out with one bullet in a rifle, to get them some food. Henry made a bow and arrow, and would toss two monkeys over the fence for his fellow prisoners, for every one he gave to the Japanese. When the war was over, Henry came home, and later taught the peyote ceremony in the 60's to the hippies that are now my friends.....from 1996 to 2004 when he died, I proudly took Henry to lunch for Veteran's day. These days, I take a fellow named Andy Steck, who I worked with at LANSCE, and who served as an electronics intelligence tech in Laos, when we weren't even supposed to be in Laos, back in 1971. The day I asked him to lunch, this very hard man cried, because he knew about Henry, and knew that it meant that Henry had passed.

My son turned 28 this year. He's seen classmates, from high school and college, die in our ten long years of war. Young men-boys, really-who will never get to be as old as he is now. I had to hold him through a good long cry when one of his bandmates from high school -a good guitarist who joined the service to learn to work on engines-was reported dead. There've been many more since then-even more who come home with brain damage, or PTSD-men who, like my grandfather-survived the war, only to bring home and deal with a deeper than physical wound.

So, yeah-I'm kinda like Patton-the object of war isn't to die for your country, _it's to make the other dumb son of a ***** die for his countr_y-but I don't know anything about it, really. Today, for dinner, we have ribs and strawberry shortcake, in honor of my dad, and tomorrow I'll go to the National Cemetery in Santa Fe, and put fresh flags on graves for an hour-_because it's only an hour_, and some of those men-_boys, really_-gave their all for me and you, *and didn't even know us*. But I'll try to pay more attention to those who are coming home, from a war we didn't need, with wounds that will be with them for the rest of their lives-and they don't even know us.


----------



## K831 (May 30, 2011)

My thoughts on memorial day;


----------

