OUR ETERNAL STRUGGLE: OBSERVING TRADITIONAL MEMORIAL DAY

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Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:

Friday 30 May 2014 is the traditional Memorial Day in our beloved United States of America.

Are all of you folks enjoying the celebration of your federally mandated holiday TODAY, Monday 26 May 2014?

For the best effect, please be sure to enjoy watching, in "FULL SCREEN" mode, this series of my homemade amateur video recordings of ME (!), performing a few appropriate songs, as I accompany myself by strumming simple chords on my Yamaha G-130A classical guitar.

Oh, WHEN, oh WHEN are folks finally going to realize there is a HUGE difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

Memorial Day and Veterans Day are NOT synonymous!

To begin with, I choose to ignore the federally mandated Monday holiday, and instead, insist on observing the traditional Memorial Day, which will be on Friday 30 May 2014, my sister, Suzy's birthday.

Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, should be solemnly observed, NOT "celebrated", for it is a day for remembering and honoring our nation's military dead, a custom which actually began in Georgia when a Union Army general, John A. Logan, of Murphysboro, Illinois, observed widows and mothers caring for the graves of Confederate soldiers.

Parades, bands, fireworks, and festivities are inappropriate on Memorial Day.

Note, also, that Memorial Day is specifically designated for honoring our MILITARY dead.

Folks have three hundred and sixty-four (364) other days throughout the year when they can put flowers on their Great Aunt Bertha's grave.

On the other hand, Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, a traditional national holiday which commemorates the Armistice of the First World War, IS an appropriate occasion for celebrations and festivities, as we rejoice and honor all military veterans, living or dead.

In acknowledgement of that historic moment in Nineteen Hundred and Eighteen (1918), all scheduled Veterans Day activities traditionally begin at precisely the Eleventh Hour on the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.

Somehow, we, the people, must persuade our elected representatives in our government to repeal the federally mandated Monday holiday laws, in order to awaken the populace to the true meaning and proper solemn observance of the traditional Memorial Day.

Then, MAYBE, we can reverse the insulting nonsense of, "Happy Memorial Day!", and/or "Celebrate Memorial Day!", along with the total inappropriateness of public parades, festivities, and fireworks.

Them there's MY thoughts on the subject.