Memorial Day: The Price of Freedom

Tomorrow is Memorial Day in the USA.

It is the unofficial start of summer, after which fashionistas can wear white shoes and white slacks until Labor Day without attracting the criticism from self-appointed arbiters of taste.

It is a federal holiday, so all schools, government offices, courts and banks will be closed, and bully for all those employed in such fields.

Most other businesses remain open, as are retail establishments, albeit with slightly shortened hours to "celebrate" the holiday.

In my youth, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, EVERYTHING was closed on Memorial Day to honor our fallen war dead, to give Americans the time to ponder its meaning and perhaps spare a thought or two about them.

Yes, there will be parades tomorrow, attended by politicians seeking re-election, accompanied by their fan clubs wearing "Vote for so-and-so" t-shirts with which to indoctrinate the crowds of people watching and proving their "connection" to their constituents, the "little people."

Which is really nothing more than campaign hype.

The parades will be followed by picnics where baseball will be played, and prodigious amounts of hot dogs, hamburgers and beer will be consumed.

And the traffic police will be on guard.

None of this had really got much to do with the purpose or meaning of Memorial Day, which was instituted to remind people about our war dead, of the sacrifices made by the brave men, women and service animals of our military so that the USA might remain free and the rest of us might go about our lives in reasonable comfort, safety, and prosperity.

And freedom, which is what many of our disgruntled and perpetually protesting youth don't seem to understand, for all that they supposedly learned when attending university.

That is because patriotism has become not only unfashionable but an object of mockery in our schools and universities, dominated for the last generation by woke progressive "educators" indoctrinating the young minds in their charge with anti-establishment propaganda and claiming oppression with there is none.

They have created a generation of mindless, easily manipulated radicals with no sense of purpose or duty other than to complain that their immediate wants, needs and fads aren't coddled to.

It is, unfortunately for this that our brave men, women and service animals in the military in wartime, some making the supreme sacrifice and paying to protect our freedoms with their lives.

The freedoms so many people take for granted and scoff at.

I will not discuss the righteousness of the wars our country has been involved in. For the most part, wars have been started by dangerously unbalanced old men with inflated egos who, in order to overcompensate for small penises, sent their armies into war just to prove that they were great leaders.

Never mind the cost in lives.

Yet our military answered to call and went to foreign shores to protect us from threats to our freedom and way of life without flinching.

It was their duty, which is an alien concept to a lot of Americans today, who profited from our military's selfless acts.

Which cost many of them their lives.

They never came home.

But here we are.

The US might not be perfect, and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to create a more perfect union, but it a damned sight better than anything else out there.

Why else do millions of people wish to relocate here, legally or otherwise, if it is so bad here?

Tomorrow is Memorial Day.

Americans ought to be reminded why it is a holiday.

They need to salute the flag and remind themselves of those who died to protect it...and us.

And it is not unseemly to shed a few tears when "Taps" is being played.