Tea and Vitriol

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 constit...

The liberal news media in the United States had a field day this weekend. Apparently, there was no other news that they chose to devote much copy to. The fringe element in US society chose to protest the Trump Administration. There were protests across America, planned in advance and not exactly spontaneous. The slogan the protesters used, among others, was "Hands off our rights." My hometown, the dying city of Rochester, New York, had its protests, too. The local news media reported that thousands of people had congregated in Cobbs Hill Park for the protest. Looking at the photos and videos of the event, that number was more likely in the hundreds. The upper hundreds, to be sure, but not as massive as they liked to claim. They also claimed that there were thousands of people protesting in the Town and Village of Livonia, a suburb of Rochester. The total population of that town and village is slightly over 7,000 souls. Hmmm... Was anyone staying at home in Livonia? And, of co...

  Today is Memorial Day. It is the unofficial start of summer, the culmination of a three-day weekend that usually features picnics where people overindulge in barbecued food and beer, parades and fireworks. But that is NOT what Memorial Day is all about. Memorial Day was set aside to honor the brave men and women who served our country in the armed forces to preserve our freedom and died in the process. Freedom is not free. Our service men and women in many cases paid the cost of freedom with their blood, sometimes making the supreme sacrifice: their lives for our country. We take those freedoms for granted on a daily basis. Some people, when they have run-ins with the law, claim that they now know what it is to live within a "police state," when it is patently clear that they know no such thing. A "police state" would never allow them to speak publicly in that manner. Among some people, it has been fashionable for a very long time to mock patriotism and the armed ...