Memorial Day Weekend

[JagFarlane]

So just a bit curious how you all are celebrating your Memorial Day weekend, also known as the unofficial start to summer? -chuckles- I remember as a kid getting all antsy just cause it meant less than a week till school was out for summer.

This year I've spent the weekend cleaning up the house/car. Have gone out to the range, and did some much needed yard work. Oh, and of course bar-b-qued like crazy, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, and steaks tonight, with pork chops probably tomorrow night.

 

[S-Des]

Recovering from a long week. I'll probably do nothing for 48 hours and love every minute of it.

 

[kiten69]

Catching up on housework/yardwork/laundry today. BBQ with the family tomorrow. . .ham, steaks and lots of homemade goodies. Hopefully try to relax, but being around my family I highly doubt it.

 

[houstondoll75]

Enjoying a long weekend off! Currently watching the Indy500 and cleaning. Prolly bbq here at home later and then tomorrow go to a family get together...or I could stay home and talk on the phone!

 

[sr71plt]

Sitting on a balconey four stories over a busy yacht basin on a resort island, sipping wine and eating crackers and cheese with my wife and a former lover and contemplating who makes dinner in time for us to make a "American Spirit" choral concert.

 

[oggbashan]

1. Planting bedding plants in new raised beds
2. Turning compost heap
3. Replacing wood on an old bench
4. Servicing the car
5. Watching the tourists on the beach
6. Buying more bedding plants
7. Buying birthday present for son-in-law
8. Thinking about those killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan

Og

 

[Bizkit_Writer]

shopping for food
cleaning my apartment
playing with my cat
Hanging out on Lit

remembering all that fought for our freedom

 

[fifty5]

But remembrance day is 11/11 - the anniversary of the peace after WW1. What's this Memorial Day? It surely can't be a celebration that the US was late into both world wars...

(Sorry, I'm not actually anything like as bitter as that seems.)

In fact I watched Pearl Harbour on TV last night. While that recorded the historical fact that the US government tried to ignore the evil in Europe until Japan actually attacked them, it also recorded equally valid history that some US citizens volunteered before that - and that the US President was on the side of the good guys before that too.

Those facts made me unreasonably sensitive. I really don't mean to attack US posters here.

 

[shereads]

8. Thinking about those killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan

Og

What he said.

 

[jomar]

8. Thinking about those killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan

Og

And my son's soccer tournament. It's a crazy world.

 

[shereads]

And my son's soccer tournament. It's a crazy world.

People were killed in your son's soccer tournament? That's passed crazy.

 

[shereads]

What's this Memorial Day? It surely can't be a celebration that the US was late into both world wars...

No, it surely isn't.

Don't be an ass. There are other threads for that.

 

[jomar]

People were killed in your son's soccer tournament? That's passed crazy.

The refs sucked.

 

[sr71plt]

But remembrance day is 11/11 - the anniversary of the peace after WW1. What's this Memorial Day? It surely can't be a celebration that the US was late into both world wars...

Happily for you, not too late to save your asses (sort of from yourselves, in the case of some of the Allies) in both wars, of course.

 

[fifty5]

No, it surely isn't.

Don't be an ass. There are other threads for that.

Despite my statement that I wasn't attacking posters here, you seem to have taken my comments personally. I really meant that, She - I wasn't trying to be an ass to you.

And despite perhaps poor phrasing, I am actually interested in this alternative commemoration day. Please tell me what it is. As I said, I do know about the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. What does something at this time of year commemorate - and why at this time?

 

[shereads]

And despite perhaps poor phrasing, I am actually interested in this alternative commemoration day. Please tell me what it is. As I said, I do know about the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. What does something at this time of year commemorate - and why at this time?

I don't know how the date was chosen, only that the holiday in the U.S. began as a day of remembrance for dead soldiers on both sides of our Civil War. It was a day when flowers were placed on Union and Confederate graves; a moment of reconciliation in honor of the dead.

 

[sr71plt]

Despite my statement that I wasn't attacking posters here, you seem to have taken my comments personally. I really meant that, She - I wasn't trying to be an ass to you.

And despite perhaps poor phrasing, I am actually interested in this alternative commemoration day. Please tell me what it is. As I said, I do know about the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. What does something at this time of year commemorate - and why at this time?

You were, actually, being sort of an ass. I don't know how old you are and how much twentieth-century history you've read (from several perspectives), but (A) these were wars that the early starters got into themselves and (B) the United States both needed time to build up to supplying essentially the whole Allied effort (the Allies were being supplied a long time before the United States actually got into the conflicts) before we could declare (and our not-so-dumb political leaders knew that). The fact is that if the United States hadn't supplied the Allies, they would have been toast before the United States entered the wars (that were not of the United States' making) and if the United States hadn't eventually come into the war full force, most of the Allied nations would be toast today.

So, you were being sort of an ass to step on this thread, which represents the U.S. effort to save your asses--twice--at considerable loss of lives of the soldiers we honor today.

 

[shereads]

So, you were being sort of an ass to step on this thread, which represents the U.S. effort to save your asses--twice--at considerable loss of lives of the soldiers we honor today.

Now you're sort of being an ass, too.

Memorial Day isn't just about honoring the dead. It's about reconciliation. So reconcile already. You can fight tomorrow.

 

[fifty5]

I don't know how the date was chosen, only that the holiday in the U.S. began as a day of remembrance for dead soldiers on both sides of our Civil War. It was a day when flowers were placed on Union and Confederate graves; a moment of reconciliation in honor of the dead.

That's good. I didn't know it went back that far. The nasty part of me (again, I'm not getting at you) nags the nicer part that in that case, it's inward looking. The nicer part comes back that nevertheless, it's still in favour of the poor shmucks that died, not about one side or the other.

 

[fifty5]

Now you're sort of being an ass, too.

Memorial Day isn't just about honoring the dead. It's about reconciliation. So reconcile already. You can fight tomorrow.

Thanks, She. That is the really laudable thing.

 

[sr71plt]

Now you're sort of being an ass, too.

Memorial Day isn't just about honoring the dead. It's about reconciliation. So reconcile already. You can fight tomorrow.

Excuse me? Where did you get the idea that Memorial Day was about reconcilation? This sounds like something you made up while you were all sitting around the campfire and singing Kumbaiya. Documentation, please. This may have had something to do with the need to play nice nice with Germany and Japan long after the wars were over, but what does it have to do with those who were U.S. Allies in those wars?

The point here is that the United States has no need to reconcile itself with any of the Allied nations of either WWI or WWII over these wars. And it's bad form to drag the supposition that the United States does into a discussion on Memorial Day commemorations marked in the United States.

Who elected you Judge Brown?

 

[shereads]

Excuse me? Where did you get the idea that Memorial Day was about reconcilation? This sounds like something you made up while you were all sitting around the campfire and singing Kumbaiya. Documentation, please. This may have had something to do with the need to play nice nice with Germany and Japan long after the wars were over, but what does it have to do with those who were U.S. Allies in those wars?

The point here is that the United States has no need to reconcile itself with any of the Allied nations of either WWI or WWII over these wars. And it's bad form to drag the supposition that the United States does into a discussion on Memorial Day commemorations marked in the United States.

Who elected you Judge Brown?

The Memorial Day holiday has its origins in the Civil War, and is about reconciliation in the sense that it honored the dead on both sides. You can google the history yourself, but you'd have to leave the interior of your own ass for two minutes. Instead, perhaps you should continue to honor our war dead in your own special way: with an outpouring of bile.

 

[fifty5]

... these were wars that the early starters got into themselves and (B) the United States both needed time to build up to supplying essentially the whole Allied effort (... if the United States hadn't supplied the Allies, they would have been toast before the United States entered the wars (that were not of the United States' making) ...

From the little I know, the first WW is debatable, but the second really isn't: Hitler's movement was evil - and recognisably so from early on. Sure there is a good argument that the Nazi movement was triggered by an over-vengeful armistice deal after WW1 - so to some extent the Allies were to blame - but still Hitler and his mob were evil. Europe (especially Britain) recognised that and fought it from much earlier than the US government - at great economic and human cost.

I'll grant that the US was the source of money and men that eventually turned the tide, but it took Pearl Harbour to get its government to get fully involved. The 'Pearl Harbour' film also made (if simplistically) the point that Japan attacked because one of its military leaders realised that unless it imposed a big victory upon the US, it was going to lose its empire. For them, it was Hobson's choice: lose now or (as it turned out) lose later.

Again let me make plain that I'm not blaming anyone here, but in both world wars, the US stayed out of the conflict as long as possible. That's a significant reason why the US is as wealthy as it is. The UK spent its resources for longer and ended up poorer.

At the trivial end of the scale, I needed to put iron railings up around my garden (so the dogs couldn't jump out into the street) because the original ones had been sacrificed to the war effort. As far as I know, there is no US equivalent. If I'm wrong, just tell me the facts, sr71plt, don't get antagonistic about it; I am willing to learn.

 

[shereads]

At the trivial end of the scale, I needed to put iron railings up around my garden (so the dogs couldn't jump out into the street) because the original ones had been sacrificed to the war effort. As far as I know, there is no US equivalent. If I'm wrong, just tell me the facts, sr71plt, don't get antagonistic about it; I am willing to learn.

You and sr have both chosen a phenomenally stupid moment for this debate. I'm far from a rah-rah flag-waving my-country-right-or-wrong American; neither am I shy about political debates, on this or any issue. But your timing is appalling. Memorial Day is about the dead and those who grieve for them. Period. To enter the thread with an attitude that is dismissive of such a holiday, and then complain when you get an antagonistic response, is disingenuous at best. And no, you don't need to remind me that your attack isn't "personal." If you attacked me personally, I wouldn't give a damn. Since I haven't personally died in battle, or lost an immediate family member in one, I don't take it personally. That doesn't make it any less offensive.

You should both be ashamed of yourselves. Grow up.

BTW, there is a "US equivalent" of your missing fence posts. Food and fuel were rationed; people were asked to give up a lot of what had been considered necessities, for the sake of the war effort. But Memorial Day isn't a remembrance of discomfort and sacrifice on the home front, in that or any war. It's about the people who died. A lot of them died over there. Show some respect, or shut up.

 

[fifty5]

Show some respect, or shut up.

You are right, She. One of my buttons got pressed, but that's my problem. The folk who died or got maimed in any conflict are the ones to respect and honour.