Memorial Day vs Veterans Day - a Rant, and a Challenge to You Civilians
I originally posted this on FB last Fall, for Veteran's Day. So you'll notice some people's comments in the middle. Yeah, it's long, but it's important and it should really open your mind, and spur you on to being better patriots, and better people. Put aside your stupid hot dog and potato salad and read what your three-day weekend is really about !
Memorial Day vs Veterans Day - a Rant, and a Challenge to You Civilians
Glynis Sylvia With great thanks and respect to all presently serving Soldiers, and Veterans...I would like to remind everyone that Memorial Day is to honor Soldiers who DIED IN BATTLE or as a result of WOUNDS from BATTLE. Before you flame me, think for a moment. These heroes gave EVERYTHING, and their loved ones could NEVER hold them again. No one else has given so much.
Veterans Day is to thank and honor heroes who have served our country, but survived battles and other important positions in the military. Again, before you flame me...I DO understand that some Veterans were never able to overcome and their lives remained ruined. In this way, they have given the rest of their life's potential in service to us. However, they do have SOME moments of pleasure. Dead Soldiers have none. I also don't mean at all to diminish the sacrifices of our Veterans, nor our presently serving Soldiers and their families. But...ask each Soldier, and ask each family member into which group would they like to be - presently serving, living but impaired, finished serving, or DEAD. Do not diminish those who gave the ULTIMATE Sacrifice. Today is THEIR holiday.
Glynis Sylvia Getting off my soapbox now, and missing my DADDY - World War II vet, and who was probably in the "living but impaired group".
Thanks, T. I do hope folks will be able to see both my utmost respect for all groups of Soldiers, but would remember to give fallen Soldiers their ultimate due, since they gave ME their ultimate sacrifice.
Glynis Sylvia Just one more post...Regarding living Soldiers - Do you thank each and every one you meet, each and every time, even if you are "in a hurry, etc."? I DO ! Even when I got in trouble (abused and/or greatly chastised by the husband - now ex). Next month, and the next, shake a hand SINCERELY, place a grateful hand on an arm or shoulder. Even if the younger Soldiers act embarrassed - underneath that, they will hear you.
C posted: Thinking about the vets who have died for USA, and friends I have lost, and glad that I knew them.
Glynis Sylvia THANK you for mentioning the Soldiers who DIED for us. They gave the ULTIMATE sacrifice.
I don't mean at all to diminish other Soldiers, but there SHOULD be a day JUST for the ones who gave ALL.
The wishing "Happy Memorial Day" should be struck from our culture. I should be replaced and raised to the term "GRATEFUL Memorial Day" !
Anyone about to say that the "happy" part is that they are happy for their freedom...is thinking of himself and not for the Heroes and their heroic Families !
D posted: Perhaps it's time that the states made a unified holiday to honour all war heroes, Dead or Alive.... Here in Canada we have 1 day, November 11th which we call Remembrance Day (your Veteran's Day).....
Glynis Sylvia
I respectfully disagree. There should be a holiday to give the utmost thanks to/for those Soldiers who gave EVERYTHING, absolutely everything. Those who died IN the battle, never got to see their loved ones again, even to say goodbye. Those who died soon after, from wounds, may also never have survived long enough to say goodbye. The families ... these 2 groups of Heroes also gave MUCH MORE than the the families of any other group of Soldiers, including Soldier Heroes whose lives were never restored to health again.
Glynis Sylvia at 3:47pm May 25
Previously serving Heroes (Veterans) have their OWN Day. Today is not their day. To prove this, ASK them to which group they would prefer to be - dead and never seeing the smile of their loved ones, or Veterans.
What really FRIES me, is that there doesn't seem to be a holiday or official recognition for our presently serving Heroes. Memorial Day is not their day. Veteran's day is not their day either. But there SHOULD be a day for them, too.
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To Poster: Thanks for the support.
You never know what type of hornets' nest you are stirring up when you try to publicly stimulate thought or change thinking. I'm sure many may think, "Who the heck is SHE anyway and what gives her the right to post this/ chastise me, etc.?" I'm quite aware of this and humbled even more by it.
I loved my dear Dad (WWII Vet) very much, but I still had this philosophy back when I lived with him. He should get our gratitude forever on HIS holiday, but the fallen Soldiers should not be diminished by lumping them into a group with those who got to see flowers and hear birds (maybe not them - they get up way too early and refuse to learn a new song phrase), and be held by loved ones for years after their service.
Thought just occurred to my teeny brain... (I mean this thought, not just thought itself - well, somedays)... We always talk about thanking Soldiers for OUR freedoms, our American freedoms. Here we are, thinking only of ourselves again.
Isn't this the flawed, selfish thinking that led to the rotten treatment heaped upon Viet Nam Vets back then? Because some of us didn't agree with the purpose of that war and thought we should mind our own business, our Heroes got spat upon (figuratively, perhaps even literally).
Over time, our Soldiers have had to fight for the rights and freedoms of others in our world. Should this be their job we ask?
As a nation, perhaps not, as a single person, definitely yes. Again, as a nation, definitely yes. Each adult is morally responsible to help anyone suffering. Anywhere. And as the (presently) most powerful country on earth, we are collectively morally responsible to help elsewhere. (Stinks, I know. Stinks financially for everyone here. Stinks more for those who had to fight for others, particularly if they didn’t like them/their philosophies/religion, etc. Stinks most for the families of those who died for others they disliked or hated.
What I’m also saying is this: We always talk about preserving OUR freedom. What are the Odds of the following...? I understand that the USA may not always be the most powerful country on earth. But just think about what it would take to REALLY have OUR freedoms at risk. They are barely at risk. We are very lucky to possess all the land from east to west on our continent. Our Canadian neighbors are friendly and have been so for a couple of hundred years. If they did try to overthrow us, or begin to ally with others to do so, we’d notice and stomp. Our southern neighbors would need to ally together for strength - too many small countries - and again, if they did so, or partnered with other nations to overthrow us, we’d notice and stomp.
This leaves water and air vulnerability. Again, any force would be noticed. Any gathering of countries to ally together to take us over would be NOTICED by us. It would take a mammoth collective force and/or a protracted campaign to weaken our most powerful country (of Heroes) in order for them to win. I thank GOD first for the blessing to live here and for His blessings to the USA for allowing us to rise and hold this position on earth. Immediately after, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the past military Heroes who got us to this enviable position.
Our present military Heroes are yes… maintaining and protecting these freedoms, but for decades have been even busier fighting and dying to grapple similar rights and freedoms for the residents of our smaller, weaker nations.
What Viet Nam Vets went through upon returning to our expected welcoming shores and arms was lastingly DEPLORABLE. Other Vets have also gotten the shaft from us, in the past and now. We are so selfish as a nation - NO!… That passes the blame and buck on to a comfortable collective! No, we are so selfish, each one of us, each one who believes we should only fight for ourselves, on our shores, or for our, our, our, me, me, me….. and for no one else - to heck with them, eh? Maybe I can’t drive the Christianity out of my thinking here, and its morals. Isn’t there a moral responsibility to our other Earth residents even without religion?
(Note: Just because I am writing this, do not think that I am past, above, or unaware that I am firmly in that selfish group. I am. Do I even know in what years the Viet Nam War was? Do I even know the names of half the starving, or suffering, or oppressed countries at present? I am guilty of thinking only of myself and our USA selves collectively - by virtue of my LAZINESS and APATHY to even bother to have learned these things.)
We shouldn’t just thank our Soldiers for preserving our U.S. freedoms, and gratefully remember our past Soldiers for wresting those freedoms in the first place from other forces in our history. We should also think globally, and futuristically. We should thank our presently serving Heroes and our recent Veterans for their service to our earth - for carrying a wounded child out of harm’s way in a country whose religion, culture, etc., we hate. These Heroes know that this child may grow up into that hateful society, may even grow up to kill the son or daughter of that Hero. And yet, they do it. They serve. Perhaps it gags them (not the wounded child itself), but they serve.
If we allow the comfortably collective selfishness to rule our country, and cause us to only fight battles that directly affect us -
(Example of collective/national selfishness - read my sarcasm and do not think this is MY way of thinking.) To heck with those millions of Jews in Germany, for example. What were they to us personally? Especially once Hitler had stripped them of their wealth (power), their collective intelligence (He killed all the scientists, professors, etc. first.), their physical health, and their psychological health - who were these pitiful folks to us then? What could they do for us? Moving onward in this thought, what were the odds that Hitler’s regime could gather enough force to overthrow US? I mean, Puh-lease.
Should we have let them continue dying? Should we have “minded our own business” about them and about the weaker residents of the small countries Hitler overcame? Some say yes.
Some still say “yes” about minding our own business on earth now. I do understand that it probably sticks in their craw to have their money/taxes taken from them to fight in a far off country they hate. And galls them even more to have lost a loved one, or to have to endure the continued disability of a loved one who served in said hated country. I do understand. And I further understand that the odds of the present USA really NEEDING help from any other country to defend us from being overtaken are so slim.
We therefore are in the rotten position to morally have to help the weak, and without much chance of them ever being able to repay us or help us in the foreseeable future. Perhaps we should have “Sucks to be American” bumper stickers. LOL
Finishing up (Yes, I can hear you cheering.):
Remember and be grateful to our fallen Soldier Heroes on this un-happy Memorial Day. They deserve their OWN entire day. And thank their families also. They gave their utmost.
On Veterans Day, and every time you see such a Hero, thank them earnestly for their gift to us and to our earth residents.
Since we regrettably don’t have an official day for honoring MIAs and POWs (perhaps dead, perhaps being tortured till death released them), remember and be grateful to them on both Memorial Day and Veterans Day. They are either fallen Heroes or still serving us by being prevented from ever ending their service and coming home to loved ones. Thank their families also. Do actual things to help them if possible, not just a handshake or two easy words.
Also regrettable is that we don’t have an official day to honor our present Soldiers. These dear Heroes are not Vets, nor fallen Soldiers. They have neither of our two holidays. Hmmm…what should we do then? Well, that handshake when meeting them, and those two words (Thank You) are something - but too little. You owe them that, 365 days a year, whenever you meet them. (You owe 365 to Veterans and their families also.) But too little.
Come on folks (and I’m going to work on this right now, and with energy)…how comfortable are our lives? (And I DARE you to trade your situation for mine.) How many hours do we have outside of work each day - how many TV hours? Come on - during even a COMMERCIAL, couldn’t you write a letter to a Soldier, or call his/her family? Give up a commercial ! Those of you with physical strength - serve your country also! Serve in an unofficial capacity by mowing the lawn of the wife of a Soldier - your lawnmower is out already for your own lawn - walk down three houses and SERVE. Offer to clean a house or garage for a military family - SERVE. Less physical strength to give? Offer to babysit, offer to mentor a child, SERVE. Enough money to be “comfortable” in America? Give up the price of some cappuccino, fancy high heels, etc., and SERVE - directly serve the families - any family in your circle or neighborhood. Find a way to serve behind their backs or anonymously if their stubborn pride refuses you to your face. Are you using the excuse that you don’t know any Soldiers or their families? FIND one. All of you, all have SOME time - in a week, in a month. All of you have some energy or some gift or ability in some capacity - even over-worked, disabled or money-poor. SERVE your country, you lazy, selfish Americans (and me). Serve here at home.
Frankly, I'll BET that the Soldier whose hand you shake today or next week would much rather you provided actual practical help to his wife, her kids, their suffering family and their mother (the mother of the Soldier). Heartfelt Words are nice, and are our responsibility to give, 365 days, whenever you meet a Soldier Veteran. But expand that old philosophy, “Put your money were your mouth is.”
Put your time, energy, gifts/abilities where your mouth is.
Get out there and SERVE.
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You may go back to your hot dog and potato salad now.....