Something I think hawkish conservatives and doveish liberals can agree on is the fact that it’s a bad thing when our soliders die. I think most would also agree that, regardless of our personal feelings about war in general (or specific wars in particular) that it is in the best interest of our society to not only honor the personal sacrifices of our soldiers, but to remember and reflect on the truly horrible human cost of war.
Yet our national holiday dedicated to this pupose has been subverted in the name of consumerism and convenience. So I’m curious what folks here think is more important: Continuing to observe Memorial Day the way we have for the past 30+ years for the sake of a guaranteed three-day weekend or reverting to the old-fashioned way which really wouldn’t do anything in and of itself to ensure that Americans honor Memorial Day?
Here’s a link that explains the issue more: Memorial Day
Hmmm…good point. I don’t know about dedicating the prayer part, but I would only change the language. Just a separation thing. But I forget what this day even is. It’s just a long weekend, so I am as guilty as anyone.
I have no problem with a law authorizing flags at half mast and a national day of rememberance (I may be the only Christian in America who doesn’t like the word “prayer” in our law). I disagree that everyone just thinks of it as a lead in to summertime. Stores have sales and stuff, sure, but all the commercials and ads I see are patriotic themed, and many people I know spend the day with families going to Armed Forces memorials of all kinds.
Got news for you sparky: people have been making the same bitchfest over Christmas for at least fifty or sixty years now.
And pretty much every other major holiday as well, for that matter. How often does the Declaration of Independence come up on July 4? Even if it does, I can’t hear it over the sizzling hot dogs and crack of Black Cats. Thanksgiving – actual day of thanks, or day of gorging on food and bickering with family members? Labor Day is less about the struggle of the proletariat and more about when to stop wearing white.
Israel has a very different sort of Memorial Day, and may be something like what Inouye is looking for.
It’s not a day off. It’s a regular work day, but once at night and once in the morning, air raid sirens are blown, and everyone stops whatever they’re doing and stands for a moment of silence. Cars will even pull over to the side of the road so that drivers can observe it. (Although that was already somewhat on the decline while I lived there–don’t know what it’s like now).
It’s really a day for visiting cemeteries and such.
I think that as soon as you make something a day off, people will turn it into a holiday–that’s the nature of people.
If you really want to honor American veterans, act to ensure that no more young Americans are sent overseas to kill and die for questionable causes. Lowering flags and making pretty speeches isn’t going to do it any more.
Personally, I don’t think you need to change much about memorial day. You could argue that people having a holiday are celebrating their freedom the way they choose. I went out and had fun today, and as I was driving home, I thought about the sacrifices made by all the soldiers in all the wars (particularly WW2). I don’t think I need to spend the entire day flogging myself with grief over it, just a personal rememberance is good enough for me. Fly flags at half-mast, encourage the media to show some rememberance-themed programming (if anyone is watching TV). You can’t force people to take part in ceremonies.
I like the poppy idea in the UK for rememberance day (Nov 11th). For a week or so running up to Nov 11th, you can buy small paper poppies for a donation to a veteran’s charity. Everyone wears the poppies in their lapels, and there’s a televised ceremony on Nov 11th. Even if you don’t watch the ceremony, seeing everyone wearing their poppies is a reminder, and tends to trigger some personal reflection.
I’m certainly not in favor of instituting religion into our federal holidays… I hadn’t caught that part about the prayer in Inoue’s speech. I do, however, think our nation could benefit from a bit of a… I don’t know… “time out” from consumerism and diversion in favor of something ceremonial and serious. But then again, I guess that’s about as un-american as you can get, isn’t it? WHY WASTE TIME WITH BORING THINKING WHEN THERE ARE STOCK CARS TO BE RACED?!? etc.
I don’t see it that way, and I don’t think any changes are necessary. People take a holiday as they will, and moving the date around and fluffing it up isn’t going to change that.
More people are cognizant of it than you think.
Excellent point.
I was pulled over for speeding last Memorial Day. The officer took my license and, having noticed my plates, asked if I was a Veteran. I said yes, he handed it back and said, “Have a nice Memorial Day.”
I don’t see it that way, and I don’t think any changes are necessary. People take a holiday as they will, and moving the date around and fluffing it up isn’t going to change that.
More people are cognizant of it than you think.
Excellent point.
I was pulled over for speeding last Memorial Day. The officer took my license and, noticing my plates, asked if I was a Veteran. I said yes, he handed it back and said, “Have a nice Memorial Day.”
In addition to the poppies, at 1100 the country (or most of it) marks a two minute silence. Military bases hold parades/inspections from around 1000 to 1100, and finish with the Last Post at 1102. CCF groups do the same.
I have two posts here. One I wrote and then instantly disagreed with, but decided to keep for posterity in the spirit of my second post. Here:
I think it’s a bad idea to have a generic memorial day for soldiers. Some wars weren’t worth fighting and I feel safer knowing that some soldiers are dead.
This is my latest, and perhaps greatest opinion on memorial day:
I think we should take very, very great pains to remember everything about war. These days always seem to be more about honouring dead heroes and appreciating the things they died for, which is bittersweet. I think it should be more bitter-bittersweet. I think if you’re going to remember war, you should remember just how bad it got, and remember that some wars should never have been fought, and that some lives were wasted and not lost, and that you should remember what it does to people other than just killing them, ie. turning them into killers, and sometimes even very bad people. I don’t think there is a conflict between remembering the dead hero part and the other part.
So yes, memorial day is good and more should be done with it beyond it just beign a holiday with a few ceremonies, but it needs to be more memorial. Making it a ‘day of prayer’, like the guy in that link is bullshit - possibly insidious bullshit. Having sirens to tell people when to remember is weird, creepy, CindySue bullshit.
Andy Rooney had a good point on the last 60 Minutes, he said, if we used days like this to think of ways to prevent future soldiers from dying in future conflicts, that would really be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.
The problem I have with it is that we use days like this to so often idolize the soldiers that died - not a bad thing necessarilly, but we don’t use it to talk about how just and useful their death really was. Will air raid sirens bring back the 50,000 who died in Vietnam? Of course not. But will continuing to say they “died for our freedom” and stuff like that actually help things, and is it useful dialogue, or does it allow the government to get in other bullshit wars?
I say we don’t do anything about or for anything or anyone unless it shows some measurable, significant, tangible benefit…for us, of course.
Be sure to tell any veteran (especially one from WWII) that, quite frankly, the simple act of flying your flag at half-mast isn’t worth your time or energy for them.
