Just Another Day

Monday is Memorial Day -- a day set aside for the purpose of remembering the sacrifice of those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

Or is it just another Hallmark Holiday?

In among all the picnics, movies, trips to the lake, and maybe an occasional parade (do they do that anymore?), how many people will remember what the day is supposed to be about.

Too few anymore.

Even among those who do, not very many will get it right. (Let me pull a pre-emptive strike before anyone can resurrect the old canard about the song "Taps". It isn't true. You can read about it here and here.)

I wish I could find the author of this quote: "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

I always had a "rear-echelon" job during my long and checkered career, but even I had to make a few small sacrifices. What made those little sacrifices easy was the knowledge that there were others who made much gteater sacrifices than I. I know a guy in Albuquerque who's a survivor of the Bataan Death March. Knowing what he went thru gets me really riled when I hear people whining about the little inconveniences of life.

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