Originally Decoration Day, Memorial Day was the day to clean up and put flowers and flags on the graves of Americans who fought for (and against) the country. It was a solemn day, marked by parades and services on town greens.
But a little over fifty years ago, the chuckleheads in Congress changed the date itself from May 30th to the last Monday of the month. That transformed Memorial Day from a solemn event into a day for cookouts and travelling, making it the unoffical start of the summer vacation season. That was done because the fucking unpatriotic greedheads in the tourism and retail industries sought to monetize it, as they do everything else.
They did the same to Veterans Day, but the veterans complained and Congress moved it back in 1978, But nobody seems to speak as loudly for the dead, so Memorial Day has been corrupted ever since.
Remember those whose lives were taken in service of this country.
The Doughboy was Joseph F. Ambrose, Sr. His son, Clement, was killed in action in the Korean War.
4 comments:
At least I'm not alone in my thinking. Always gets to me when people say "happy Memorial day!!
but heres hoping all have a safe and solemn Memorial day
I just spent the morning with 100,000 of my brothers and sisters at Willamette National
Ambrose's story is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_F._Ambrose
It made me think, but probably because Grandpa was in The Great War and Dad was in Korea.
Thank you for remembering, Shipmate.
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