It’s Likely That You Already Know This Because You’re An Adult
It is inappropriate to say Happy Memorial Day. Memorial Day is for solemn reflection on those who gave all – the men and women who sacrificed their lives to keep America safe. It is not a happy time – it is a call to duty and to country.
My momma and daddy taught me this with great reverence. My schoolteachers taught me this. My grandparents taught me this, remembering the war to end all wars. My friends who are veterans taught me this with a tear in their eye. My veteran son will go at sundown and blow taps on his trumpet – alone, without fanfare, and filled with respect at the historic cemetery in our town.
Happy Memorial Day is like saying Happy 9-11.
So, as you would expect …
In ALL CAPS no less.
It’s fine to have a picnic or in normal times to go swimming in the river, but take some time to remember 17 year olds, who died alone and in pain – many times for no good cause whatsoever.
Show some damn respect.
am feeling some de-ja-vu
1didn’t he tweet the same last year?
In a different time, people went to the cemeteries to clean a loved one’s head stone, place flowers, perhaps leave a small stone or a small flag at the place of rest. Those who gave their all were remember.
Now we have substituted festive bar-b-ques, swimming at the beach and shopping sales, in place of respectfully honoring those who died while serving in the time of war. And this is the only part of Memorial Day that Trump understands.
2And papa, of course he has to go golfing
3Papa of course he has to go golfing
4Trump even has a number of Chiefs of Staff he could ask, for clarification. Should his parents or teachers not have impressed the solemnity of Memorial Day upon him, perhaps in a moment he paid attention.
5Because in Trumpworld, it’s all fireworks and picnics and afternoons at the beach. Sheesh!
6I miss my daddy a lot today. He served for over 5 years in WWII despite being blind in one eye, the eye he needed to use to sight to shoot. So he became a medic. We need to honor people like him and not think of this as a day to have fun.
7Was there ever a clown more clueless than Donald Trump?
8My Dad was a pilot in WWII. He was 19 years old when he went to flight school for six weeks. He came home for a day or two to say goodbye to my mother and his own family. Then he flew to Morocco and on to England. He flew 60 missions in a B-26 and got a DFC with oak leaves after three years in the Air Force. I never ever would say Memorial Day is anything but a day to remember all those who died and gave it all. Never a happy day at all. Thank you to all those young men who died and the ones lucky enough to come home.
9And last month he tweeted “Happy Good Friday.”
10“Thank you for inviting me to your husband’s funeral. I had a wonderful time.”
Donald
11At 3 this afternoon, I heard a neighbor start playing Taps on his trumpet and the another talented neighbor chimed in with harmony. I couldn’t see either neighbor, but loved hearing the haunting trumpet polyphony and then silence. It was so moving.
12I, too miss my Dad, who served on a carrier in the Pacific during WWII. Luckily, my brother, who spent 13 months in the Vietnamese jungle, came home. Two other brothers served as well. Lots of prayers and thank you’s.
I’m currently listening to a Classic Rock radio station, and what did the Disc Jockey just wish us all? C’mon take a stab at it. It starts out “Happy”. And now AC/DC.
Sigh
13My dad was in the tanks corps in WW II – captured in N. Africa and spent 2 years as a POW; my father-in-law landed in Normandy, and was in the Battle of the Bulge. We were lucky both came home. A lot of the men who were with them didn’t.
My flags are out today in their honor.
14Seems like way too many people have forgotten what Memorial Day is all about.
15My father was in the Army Air Corps. He flew bombers in the Pacific. He joined the reserves after WWII, was called back to duty for Korea. He flew bombers out of Okinawa. He decided to stay in the Air Force and served for another 20 years. He did not go to Vietnam because of the damage to his equilibrium flying in the unpressurized bombers.
16He rarely spoke of his wartime service and wouldn’t have a gun in the house.
Thank you, Daddy
My grandfather Dean Fink, a WWII submariner, just passed away within the last couple of months. As the son of a career
17Navy man, I was taught the solemnity and how to honor Memorial Day. My friend Howard Clark and I would generally go to cemeteries (while we were working out of town) and look to those who had served in the forces. Bless those who have sacrificed for our way of life and the freedoms that we all share.
My father joined the Navy a week after Pearl Harbor–all 5’7″ of him, with flat feet, and deaf in one ear from meningitis when he was six years old. He was on the verge of being shipped out, twice, before the Navy decided that he might be more useful keeping up with paperwork than doing any actual fighting–so he ended up in Washington State, with his wife and baby daughter, keeping the paperwork straight for building Liberty Ships. Good for you, Dad. I miss you.
18My late husband was wounded on Omaha Beach, age 18. My Dad, an Engineer built bridges for the Infantry all through Europe.
My Husband went on, all the way through Europe to help liberate the Concentration Camps.
Yesterday my Son and I decorated the graves. No, it is not a happy Holiday.
It is a day to respect and mourn not only them but the sad state our Country is in. Also think of the almost 100,000 dead in the last few months and the suffering families.
19It is to respect
He`s happy because he RAN AWAY .
20My Dad was too young after Pearl Harbor, but we have a letter from my grandmother to the enlistment board to take him anyway, otherwise he’d go to Canada, and so he was in the Pacific. He was a landing craft pilot, and later commanded a small group (with a battlefield commission), staying in until he was a part of the occupation force in Japan. He received a purple heart from one of the Japanese bombing raids/shellings he experienced. Though I think he minded the skin mold that he got from spending long hours in a wet tractor style metal seat more (which needed to be scraped off with a scalpel).
My Father-in-law was a Dentist on board a cruiser, including during the Okinawa campaign.
My maternal grandfather was an aircraft mechanic in WWI, later pressed into nursing duty during the Influenza pandemic.
Can I say, have a grateful Memorial Day? Damn I miss them so…
21@Henry: How true, but I fear Trump wouldn’t be happy at all because it wasn’t about him. He has to be “the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.”
22I had your post in mind and was surprised to hear Don Lemon on CNN say the same thing.
23As Papa reminds us, it used to be called Decoration Day because people decorated graves with spring flowers, beginning during the Civil War. Maybe we should return to that name.
24It’s worse than we thought. The RNC held a “HUGE” Memorial Day sale of trump campaign crap.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/rnc-memorial-day-trump-merchandise-sale-2020-campaign-a9533596.html
I can only hope this means nobody is buying it full-price.
25Trump DID make the trips to Arlington Cemetery and Fort McHenry — 3 hours in total, including all transporation time.
Unmasked, of course, despite specific notice of the Maryland regulations requiring a mask. Saluting the flag (unlike the VP and Sec of Defense, who placed their hands near their heart).
And of course, Trump spoke. A key paragraph [*with my additions].
the British fleet launched an assault on this peninsula. From the harbor [*the British were trying to get INTO the harbor*], some 30 British warships [*or 19, according to many descriptions of the battle*] attacked this stronghold. Rockets rained down. Bombs burst in the air. [*why not just QUOTE the Star Spangled Banner? this sounds like a bad re-write in a 10th grade essay.*] In the deck of one ship [*in*?* the deck?*], a gallant young American [*FS Key was an attorney, age 31, who never served in the military*] was held captive [*he was present as a negotiator, trying to arrange a prisoner release or exchange, and was not allowed to leave in mid-battle*]. His name was Francis Scott Key.
I used to teach speech. If someone had this many errors, it might earn a C if the delivery was outstanding. More likely, a D.
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