Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts

Monday, May 27, 2019

Have a great Memorial Day


Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. ... Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

How to Observe Memorial Day

By visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
By flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon. ...
By attending religious services of your choice.
By visiting memorials.

Or you can do it your way...Just Remember!

Thanks to Google for the information.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Memorial Day for the heroes



The word memorial is identified as a commemorative act to perpetuate the memory of a person, event, etc., usually carried out as a monument or a holiday. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day was inaugurated by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic [U.S. Army] in 1868. It was for the purpose of honoring the 620,000 soldiers killed in the Civil War. In comparison, 644,000 were killed in all other conflicts. In going to war, the participant realizes his or her chance of not coming home alive. That's a hero, and we have many of those today.

There are 22 million veterans in the U.S. (10 percent are women) meaning that 7.3 percent of all living Americans have served in the military at some point in their lives. There are lots of reasons for joining up but then there is also the draft, initiated when personnel were needed for the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In other words, the military is made up of a complex group of individuals, but no matter how they entered the service, they were there to fight for, and, if necessary, die for their country. Those that died are the ones we pay tribute to today, honoring their lives and commitment.

Here are three things you may not have known about Memorial Day...

  • John Logan originally meant Memorial Day for Union Soldiers only
  • The Vietnam War was responsible for Memorial Day becoming a national holiday
  • Although many towns claim to have been the birthplace of Memorial Day, Waterloo, New York is officially recognized as the first to commemorate the day
Along with my fellow veterans and all the rest of you out there, we want to convey our gratitude to those who didn't make it back and our heartfelt thanks for your ultimate sacrifice.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Why Memorial Day?


Saigon evacuation
Officially, Memorial Day is the day we remember all those members of the active armed services that died in a war. That would be many...
World War One-17 million
World War Two-416,800
Korean War-36,914
Vietnam War-58,220
World War One was billed as the war to end all wars. It didn't. It seems more like it set the mold for future generations to build from. Folks, this was when they fought face to face in the trenches and often, the method of killing the enemy was with a bayonet. Now that is up close. My father was in that war and he brought home a German rifle, bayonet, and two German helmets, one an enlisted man, the other an officer. He never told me exactly how he acquired them. This war started from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, then spread around the world.

World War Two was started by a dictator, Adolph Hitler, lasted for six years, and ended with the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese. As Wikipedia put it, "It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries in a state of 'total war.'" Japan surrendered and today is one of our closest allies. Before Hitler there was Benito Mussolini, then there was Stalin. Dictators have ruled from the beginning of time and will continue to as long as power is concentrated and there are people who succumb to deceptive promises.

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of WWII, when it split into two regions, each with separate governments and claiming to be the legitimate government of all of Korea. The war had its ups and downs for both sides until an armistice was signed July 27,1953, creating the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea. There were several leaders in North Korea following the war but in 1994, Kim Jong-il took control and ruled until his psych son, Kim Jong-un took over. Here's how he runs his regime...
“Kim Jong-Un has picked up where his father and grandfather left off, by overseeing a system of public executions, extensive political prison camps, and brutal forced labor,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Unfortunately, there is no Memorial Day for these deaths and others like them...

The Vietnam War was fought against America as the aggressor, and produced, perhaps, some of the worst horror stories of any before it. No one will forget that picture (above) of people trying to get on one of the last helicopter evacuating Saigon, which transported more than 1,000 Americans and more than 5,000 Vietnamese out of the city. I had a close friend, until his death, who related to me his chilling experience. He and other American soldiers were attacked by hooded Vietnamese with knives; he shot and killed two. When he removed the hoods, one was a young girl.

As they say, war is hell but currently we are stuck with a "potential" situation that won't go away. No. Korea's present leader, Kim Jong-Un, persists in rattling his swords of war and dares the United States to call his bluff. President Obama seemed close to some meaningful negotiations in March of 2016, but it all tanked when the U.S. demanded No. Korea's nuclear weapons be a part of the talks. And Kim Jong Un just tested a missile capable of carrying a large nuclear warhead. But now Donald Trump has decided to shoot down a simulated North Korean ICBM intercontinental-range missile.

I am using Memorial Day here to point out the unneeded wars that have been fought and to illustrate the fact that we just might be headed back into another one with a dictator on one side, and our very
own oligarch on the other. Will it ever end? I will leave you with a list of fatalities from all U.S. Wars and Conflicts...

American Revolution (1775-1783)                4,435
War of 1812 (1812-1815)                              2,260
Mexican War (1846-1848)                          13,283
Civil War (1861-1865)                               620,000
Spanish-American War (1898-1902)               385
World War I (1917-1918)                           116,516
World War II (1941-1945)                         405,399
Korean War (1950-1953)                            36,574
Vietnam War (1964-1975)                          58,220
Gulf War (1990-1991)                                      383
Afghanistan War (2001-present)                   2,381
Iraq War (2003-2012)                                   4,500
Happy Memorial Day!

Monday, May 25, 2015

What is the History of Memorial Day?


We've been told enough recently the distinction between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the former representing our war dead and the latter all veterans who have served. But where did this celebration come from and how did it mature through the years to what it is today? It was originally called Decoration Day, referring to the practice of decorating Civil War soldiers' tombs with bouquets of lilacs and other fresh flowers. And then in 1866, it had its first village-wide observance in Waterloo, N.Y. led by Gen. John Murray and Henry Wells, using flags at half-staff, evergreens and black fabric to signify mourning. But it was on May 26, 1966, that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation honoring Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day. Many Southern states still pay homage to the Civil War and the Confederate dead on their own specified days. And then following World War One, the day was expanded to honor those killed in all wars, not just the Civil War. Remember, the National Moment of Remembrance is 3 PM local time wherever you are.

Thanks to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.


Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day origination loosely connected to Civil War vets who founded NRA

The Civil War had ended and the country was looking for a way to honor the dead.  There were several false starts but the end result was today’s Memorial Day holiday.  It was primarily guns, mostly rifles that were used to kill the other side in the War Between the States.  Soldiers were recruited to fight, some with little or no real instructions on how to use their weapons.  It was a war that was put together rather hastily.

But it was a couple of Civil War veterans from New York that were concerned about the state of marksmanship in the military and who decided to do something about it.  It was 1871 when the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) was founded by Union veterans Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate.  The purpose was to promote and encourage rifle shooting.  The organization’s first president was Civil War Gen. Ambrose Burnside, also a Senator and governor of Rhode Island. 

By the way, this comes right from an NRA site. 

Their goal was to establish a rifle range that improved marksmanship, and a site was built on Long Island, NY in 1873.  But the promotion of marksmanship met opposition from some New Yorkers—probably a Michael Bloomberg ancestor—which forced the range to move to New Jersey.  They got the youth involved and this is still a cornerstone of the NRA.  We are talking about gun education here, something clearly absent with most state gun regulations today.

So where is all this going?  The site, Common Gun Sense, posted an article last week on the celebration of Memorial Day and where we are today when it comes to guns.  It talks about the “stunning” number of lives lost to gunfire in our communities.   “Every year, 100,000 Americans are shot. Of these, about 30,000 die from their injuries. This includes homicides, suicides and accidental shootings.”  And much of this can be attributed to the NRA and the gun lobby.

In the years since inception, the NRA, headed by CEO and Exec. Vice President Wayne LaPierre, has managed to turn a worthwhile movement, originally designed to promote gun education, into a bunch of power-hungry thugs whose main thrust is to put guns in the hands of every person in the U.S. and make sure they can carry them anywhere they want.  Oh, and their political appetite for power has now exceeded guns and is into other causes like immigration, etc.


NRA with blood on its guns

Memorial Day is now a celebration for all those who have served their country in war.  The time has come to establish a memorial for those who have fallen at the hands of gun freaks like George Zimmerman, now charged for the killing of Trayvon Martin.  We need a day that articulates the gun violence that is increasing in this country in a way that will illustrate to a public that has been brain-washed by the NRA that guns do kill people. 

It is interesting that the NRA initially supported the Gun Control Act of 1968 and even helped draft portions of the bill that was introduced by Senator Thomas J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.  Then it later turned to its true nature and opposed the law.  Wayne LaPierre has served as the NRA head since 1991 and during his reign has produced the loosest gun laws ever enacted in the U.S., perhaps the world, which have resulted in a rapid increase in gun deaths.

I started documenting monthly shootings in the U.S. and resulting deaths in March; something you gun worshippers cannot argue with, and the results are frightening.  In March there were 38 shooting and 40 deaths.  Then April surged to 69 shootings and 66 deaths.  But the lunatic LaPierre raves on about the 2nd Amendment and how it protects gun owners.  Well, it is time to examine the “how” and consider completely revamping its meaning.  And now!

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