Musings of a Technonerd

This is memorial day weekend. I'd be remiss if I didn't remind people that this holiday isn't so we can have a extra day off as summer begins. It wasn't started so we could take it easy and roast some weenies at the lake. No, it was started back right after the civil war, the exact origins are murky, to honor the brave men and woman who've given their lives for our country. The traditional day is May 30th, but the day was moved to the last Monday of the year by the National Holidays Act passed in 1991.


It seems to me that we've slowly forgotten the true meaning of this holiday over the years. I remember, as a small lad in Kansas City, watching a solemn ceremony conducted by some "Great War" vets at a memorial marker near where I lived. I remember the gents were pretty old, at least they seemed like it to me, and many of them were quite emotional, something I thought odd at the time. I understand now. But slowly, the true meaning has been lost over the years. It's became the de-facto "launch of summer" now, and I don't think that's a good thing. I hear of very few memorial day parades these days.


Almost all of the "Great War" vets are gone. From what I can find on the net, fewer than 100 vets total survive. In 2005, the Veterans Affair Dept listed 11 Americans qualified for benefits from service in WW1. WW2 veterans ranks are diminishing very quickly.


For a while, I volunteered at the Planes Of Fame Museum at Flying Cloud Airport before it closed in 1997. I got to know some of the WW2 vets well, and I always enjoyed hearing them tell their tales from the war, and they sure did enjoy a new pair of ears to listen to them. Sadly, some of them have passed on since the museum closed its doors, and I really miss them. Then came Korea and Vietnam, conflicts that seem like ancient history to the current crop of kids graduating from high school this year. Now we have a new crop of veterans coming back from the middle east, and I think it behooves us to not treat them the same way the Vietnam vets were treated when they returned from the war. And let me tell you, they were treated in a really shabby manner. Stories of uniformed soldiers being spat upon at airports are not uncommon, and sadly are true. After a while, they were told to take the uniform off before they got stateside to avoid treatment like that. That's pretty sad in my opinion, and I think, something the "Baby Boomers" should be ashamed of. (Yes, I am a baby boomer, and I do not suffer us Baby Boomers lightly. I think we tend to be self absorbed and arrogant, but that's another post.)


My whole point to to take some time to at least think for a minute about what this day means. Think about the vet in your neighborhood, no matter what conflict they might have been involved in, and perhaps go and thank them. But above all else, think for a while about the men and woman who made the supreme sacrifice in service to this country. Perhaps say a prayer to your god, higher power, what ever. If you've a deceased vet in the family with a grave nearby, put a flag on their grave and say another prayer. Also, think about the parents of those vets. They made a huge, huge sacrifice. They need to know we're thinking of them. Tell them they're in your prayers. SOMETHING. We owe them so much. It's the least we can do.


Oh, one more thing. Put your flag out. It's the right thing to do.




We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

Moina Michael 1915