Monday, May 26, 2014

Today Should Not Be Memorial Day (and Please Stop With the Thanking Veterans Today)

Rant the First: Do not go up to a veteran today and thank him or her for serving because it's Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a lineal descendant of Decoration Day, which began as a day to honor those who had died serving in the Grand Army of the Republic, a/k/a the Union Army. Memorial Day is for honoring the dead. Veterans Day for honoring the living as well.

Thanking a veteran on Memorial Day could be construed as saying "you should only die soon."

So knock that shit off.

Rant the Second: Today should not be Memorial Day. It should be on May 30th.

Maybe I should just specify this yearly rant as a "continuing objection", or something.

But we, as a nation, moved Veterans' Day back to the anniversary of the World War I Armistice. This is supposed to be the day to honor those who have served and who had their lives ripped away from them.


It's not supposed to be a day to get a jump-start on the summer or the day to get twenty percent off on cheap-jack Chinese shit. That's just ignoble capitalistic debasement of a once-noble holiday.
on or about

6 comments:

  1. Constitutional Insurgent5/26/2014 2:36 PM

    My sentiments exactly. I'm avoiding people today, for fear of what I might do if somebody tells me "Happy memorial Day"

    ReplyDelete
  2. bearsense5/26/2014 5:24 PM

    Was "congratulated" today at the gym. Said "thanks, but Memorial Day is May 30th."
    Have my 2012 post scheduled for the day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deadstick5/27/2014 4:01 PM

    Ah yes, Veterans Day...if you're a mail carrier or a DMV clerk you get the day off, but if you're only a veteran you have to go to work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown5/28/2014 9:14 PM

    Growing up in the 50s, sharing a dinner table with WW II vets, I was taught to observe Armistice Day as a celebration of the END of war.

    Perhaps we as a society would do well to set aside a day for peace, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Comrade Misfit5/28/2014 9:42 PM

    That might be nice to do, danny, but it seems pretty clear that for our species, peace is an illusion.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown5/30/2014 12:04 AM

    GREAT story, Comrade. Thanks. As one of the commenters noted, the author should expand that into a short story.

    ReplyDelete

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