Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day.  I am working part of the day.  But I woke up thinking about this holiday.

I did some research and found that the original holiday was Decoration Day. One late spring day people from a town would all go to the cemetery and have a work-day.  The would clean up, plant flowers and have a picnic.  It was a celebration day...being together...remembering.

Apparently after the Civil War, some southerners decided to decorate the graves of northern soldiers.   They were hoping that someone in the north would honor the graves of the sons and brothers they lost.

Now it's just a military holiday.

It seems as if so much of our culture, so many of our remembrances are military only.

And that bothers me. It bothers me for two reasons.  First, it is unbalanced.  We are more than a military, so our celebrations and remembrances need to be more than just military. Second, we treat veterans so poorly, we don't have the right to honor them.  It is hypocritical.

If we were truly honoring this day, and Veteran's Day, we would have a social support system set up for our vets.  Our soldiers and their families would not live in poverty. We would not only care after they died, when all we have to do is put a flag on their grave once a year.

To force this poverty on them, yet trot them out twice a year so we could say we honor them - it makes me gag.

Our vets are homeless.  They are sick.  They are in need.

Yet our government says - too bad they have PTSD, but it was a pre-existing condition.  If true, recruiters should never have enlisted them.

It's only the tip of the ice-berg.

I feel lost on days like this. I honor those who served, I grieve for those who died.  I am not interested in participating in this hypocritical holiday.

We need to go back to Decoration Day...

Love and hugs from your grumpy sister...Clare

The funny thing is - I went back looking for the original articles about Decoration Day, and could not find them. All references on the internet are now military...