pyroguysr's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEMORIAL DAY
Memorial Day. It�s not about The Indy 500. It�s not about pools finally opening or a day off to have picnics or �the start of summer.� It�s about veterans and active duty people and their families. It�s a day to recognize those that gave their lives in conflicts so that you may have the freedom to say what you want, to believe what you want and to be what you want. It�s about young men and women giving up their rights and joining the Armed Forces to defend yours. It�s about people that have given up 2, 4, 6 and more years out of their lives so that you have the right to call the President �stupid� or allow a presidential candidate to claim he was a �war hero� having the �right to three purple-hearts.� It�s about having the right to support your candidate without fear of being jailed, tortured or executed. It�s about people that sacrifice so that you can remain silent about your beliefs. It�s about those that serve to defend your right to be ignorant, paranoid, a conspiracy theorist or an �ber-patriot. Their sacrifice allows us the freedom to debate, to have radical beliefs, to worship or not worship as we choose to believe. It�s about our grandfathers who may have served during WW2, the Korean War or Vietnam. It�s about our fathers and sons that may have served in either of the Gulf conflicts. It�s about those that continue to serve now, that are being asked to give additional sacrifice under adverse conditions and to be away from their families. It�s about preserving the right of our media, college campus�s and high schools to continually sabotage recruitment efforts by either restricting the right of recruiters to be on those campuses or by eliminating funding for ROTC. It�s about those 2300+ civilians that gave their lives when radical Muslim terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania. It�s about remembering those veterans that sit in VA hospitals with combat injuries or fighting drug and alcohol problems or worse, those veterans that are homeless and out on the street. It�s about the civilians that have given their lives, but whose death the media is to chicken to show because it just might foster additional waves of patriotism - though they will yammer unceasingly about a little bit of humiliation that some of our soldiers may have caused the enemy. Memorial Day is about those that died due to media irresponsibility. So, when you see your local VFW or American Legion members standing at attention on Monday morning out in front of a memorial or their posts, don�t just drive by and ignore them. Stop. Listen to the speeches. Salute the flag. Be thankful for those that have died so that you can live and be the person that you are. 4:02 p.m. - 2005-05-29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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