107 thoughts on “Memorial Day”

    1. Morning GA!
      this is BEAUTIFUL!
      here in our little township, we have flags with the soldier’s military picture and name/rank/service on it lining the main street…they’re there constantly.
      a reminder of our debt and their sacrifice!

      Liked by 2 people

        1. I have seen these flags–with the soldiers’ info on them in towns throughout our county. i often marvel at how family names seem prevalent in towns.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Ha! You should come to NE, Pat! Every single small town across the state is like that…10 years I’ve been here, but I’m still not considered a “native,” nor will I ever be!

            Liked by 1 person

            1. LOL
              up here there are “ridge runners” and “flat landers”
              since we are from farm country in PA, we are flat landers. so i asked when we get to be ridge runners. I was told when we own a truck (done!), bottle some “shine” (is wine close enough?) and butcher our first opossum…PASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

              Liked by 1 person

  2. Morning All!
    Memorial Day we honor those who never made it home. Veterans Day is for all those who served.
    Still, i think it’s important to thank Vets as many times as we can…
    so even though the day is not about you specifically, I still want to THANK YOU FILLY for your service to our country.
    we need more good folks like you!

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Awww….thank you, Pat! I can’t help but feel a little out of place on this roster since I was simply a secretary in uniform and enlisted for my own benefit. Yes, I was willing to do whatever was needed – both my birth and adopted families were/are very patriotic and generation after generation after generation has served our Republic. We also need to bear in mind that many, many people served – and died – out of uniform as well.

      What’s sad now is to wonder: how many of those wars were even really necessary??? All that we’ve learned thru these years of waking up to the real motivation behind those wars…..it casts a pall on it to some degree.

      I suppose Piper is on her way to Europe – she told me she was leaving 5/30…..please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, that she will have a wonderful time and return home safe and sound!!!

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Morning Filly!
        you’re being modest. being in the service takes an attitude, a commitment and a mindset I don’t have. you did.
        I appreciate your service!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Clearly, I’m messed up on my dates – I’m always thinking it is the 30th today……so she was supposed to leave tomorrow – my Sis is going to keep an eye on FB to see what’s happening and I think I’ll just go ahead and send her a “have fun, be careful” text….

          Liked by 1 person

  5. Citizen 817
    Citizen 817
    May 29, 2023 12:27 am

    @realDonaldTrump

    1d
    Ron DeSanctimonious just fired, like on “The Apprentice,” his friend and top campaign official, Phil Cox, because his campaign is a complete disaster, and 2028 is looking really bad. His campaign manager, who so deftly handled the Ted Cruz campaign against me, wanted to work for me, but was turned down – a “money grubber” like no other, and won’t quit until he’s got every last penny. Now “Rob” must change the theme of his campaign from NEVER BACK DOWN to WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING!

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Citizen 817
    Citizen 817
    May 29, 2023 12:27 am

    @realDonaldTrump

    10h
    Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his big and well deserved victory in Turkey. I know him well, he is a friend, and have learned firsthand how much he loves his Country and the great people of Turkey, which he has lifted to a new level of prominence and respect!

    Like

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  15. RETIRE ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! feinstein

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  18. NF: I saw many of these services since Ft. Meyer is adjacent to ANC and HB’s Godfather was a Tomb Guard…it is really something to experience first-hand, if you ever get the chance.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Last evening, I was sitting on the patio enjoying the gorgeous day (once the wind died down), reading and watching the birds. I saw a female Oriole land on the side of the cage – she clearly wasn’t familiar with it and couldn’t quite figure out how to get to the jelly. She hopped here and there before a small black male – smaller than her – lighted on the right spot. I could see her tilt her head back and forth and watch him, then mimicked his hops down to the right place. She sat and watched him as he dipped his beak into the jelly several times, not quite getting it yet….then he took some jelly in his beak and fed it to her, before dipping his beak again in the jelly! She promptly got the message and commenced to feeding.

    At that point, the male flew up to the Hummer feeder I have under the eaves – haven’t seen even one hummer but the Orioles love it. It’s round, with a plastic ring around the bottom as the perch, and was going around and around and around in the wind….he wanted to keep an eye on his lady feeding on the jelly, so he kept hopping as the feeder kept turning so he could stay in position to see her….it was the funniest danged thing I’ve seen in ages!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. My blood was moving when I was talking to my Sis about the horse deaths….I told her about the one you posted and she said it’s now 4 more that have died at CHD!!! We were bemoaning the lack of love and care that most of the people WE worked with lavished on their horses – they, and we, actually truly cared about them! Not any more – it’s just money, money, money….if they don’t perform up to snuff, throw them away and get another…..

      Liked by 2 people

  26. “From the Civil War to Today’s Mattress Sales, Memorial Day Is Full of Contradiction”
    26 May 2023
    Associated Press | By Ben Finley

    (A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard, places flags in front of each headstone for “Flags-In” at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Thursday, May 25, 2023, to honor the Nation’s fallen military heroes ahead of Memorial Day. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

    “NORFOLK, Va. — Memorial Day is supposed to be about mourning the nation’s fallen service members, but it’s come to anchor the unofficial start of summer and a long weekend of discounts on anything from mattresses to lawn mowers. Auto club AAA said in a travel forecast that this holiday weekend could be “one for the record books, especially at airports,” with more than 42 million Americans projected to travel 50 miles (80 kilometers) or more.

    But for Manuel Castañeda Jr., 58, the day will be a quiet one in Durand, Illinois, outside Rockford. He lost his father, a U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, in an accident in California while training other Marines in 1966. “Memorial Day is very personal,” said Castañeda, who also served in the Marines and Army National Guard, from which he knew men who died in combat. “It isn’t just the specials. It isn’t just the barbecue.” But he tries not to judge others who spend the holiday differently: “How can I expect them to understand the depth of what I feel when they haven’t experienced anything like that?”

    What is the official purpose of Memorial Day? It’s a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military, according to the Congressional Research Service. The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence.

    What are the holidays origins?

    The holiday stems from the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members — both Union and Confederate — between 1861 and 1865. There’s little controversy over the first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day. It occurred May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers, which were in bloom. The practice was already widespread on a local level. Waterloo, New York, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday’s birthplace.

    Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864, according to the Library of Congress. And women in some Confederate states were decorating graves before the war’s end. But David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina.

    A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves. “What happened in Charleston does have the right to claim to be first, if that matters,” Blight told The Associated Press in 2011. In 2021, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel cited the story in a Memorial Day speech in Hudson, Ohio. The ceremony’s organizers turned off his microphone because they said it wasn’t relevant to honoring the city’s veterans. The event’s organizers later resigned.

    Has Memorial Day always been a source of contention?

    Someone has always lamented the holiday’s drift from its original meaning. As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become “sacrilegious” and no longer “sacred” if it focuses more on pomp, dinners and oratory. In 1871, abolitionist Frederick Douglass feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War’s impetus — slavery — when he gave a Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.

    “We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers,” Douglass said. His concerns were well-founded, said Ben Railton, a professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. Even though roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, the holiday in many communities would essentially become “white Memorial Day,” especially after the rise of the Jim Crow South, Railton said.

    Meanwhile, how the day was spent — at least by the nation’s elected officials — could draw scrutiny for years after the Civil War. In the 1880s, then-President Grover Cleveland was said to have gone fishing — and “people were appalled,” said Matthew Dennis, an emeritus history professor at the University of Oregon. By 1911, the Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, drawing 85,000 spectators. A report from The Associated Press made no mention of the holiday — or any controversy.

    How has Memorial Day changed?

    Dennis said Memorial Day’s potency diminished somewhat with the addition of Armistice Day, which marked World War I’s end on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice Day became a national holiday by 1938 and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. An act of Congress changed Memorial Day from every May 30th to the last Monday in May in 1971. Veterans objected: “They didn’t want to be just some random Monday that people could forget about,” Dennis said.

    In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”

    Why is Memorial Day tied to sales and travel?

    Even in the 19th century, grave ceremonies were followed by leisure activities such as picnicking and foot races, Dennis said. The holiday also evolved alongside baseball and the automobile, the five-day work week and summer vacation, according to the 2002 book, “A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

    In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses began to open defiantly on the holiday. Once the holiday moved to Monday, “the traditional barriers against doing business began to crumble,” authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran wrote. These days, Memorial Day sales and traveling are deeply woven into the nation’s muscle memory. This weekend, 2.7 million more people will travel for the unofficial start of summer compared to last year — despite inflation, according to AAA.

    Jason Redman, 48, a retired Navy SEAL who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he’ll be thinking of friends he’s lost. Thirty names are tattooed on his arm “for every guy that I personally knew that died.” He wants Americans to remember the fallen — but also to enjoy themselves, knowing lives were sacrificed to forge the holiday.”

    Liked by 1 person

  30. if john kerry wants our farmers to stop farming so we can meet some asinine net zero goal…then why in the hell are we importing (loosely called) MIGRANT WORKERS??? who are supposed to “pick our crops” according to idiot democrats…

    sync
    sync
    May 29, 2023 10:42 am

    Illegal aliens are now labelled “migrant workers”

    This weekend, migrant workers from New York City came by bus to the Sure Stay Best Western on Wolf Road. Their arrival marks the conclusion of talks between Albany and New York City. However, Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey revealed the details in a letter to local media, labeling it a “unilateral action of Mayor Adams.”

    https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3041015065817-new-york-authorities-sent-a-bus-load-of-migrants-to-the-albany-city

    Liked by 1 person

  31. we went to walmart cuz i broke off a plastic nose piece on my glasses. i’ve had them replaced before so i knew they had them.
    I asked the lady in the glasses section which size i needed and showed her the broken piece. when she told me, I went back to the display and said, darn, you only have one package and i really wanted to buy a spare set.
    she said take that one package and I’ll replace these (taking my glasses) with ones we have in the back. I said okay–fully expecting to pay for 2 sets plus whatever fee for fixing them.
    she charged me only for the spare set ($2.98) and sent me on my way.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. I have walmart reading glasses–which i used in between cataract surgeries.
        the ones I wear all the time are technically reading glasses because they are clear expect for the lower section. but these are round and suit my face so much more than any of the regular reading glasses. and i wear these constantly because i am always crafting, sewing or doing something during the day.

        Liked by 1 person

  34. Not sure if this was posted or not…

    Liked by 1 person

  35. 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸
    @Travis_in_Flint
    Happening Now:

    Reports are now coming in that Diane Feinstein has been unwell for a long time and her peers in the Senate have been covering for her. Last year she got very confused and didn’t understand why Kamala Harris was there to vote. Apparently it’s well known around the senate that her aides handle everything and she’s just a puppet at this point.

    Why are the people of California being represented by people they didn’t vote for? Why are members of the Senate covering for a woman with severely deteriorating mental health?

    Liked by 1 person

  36. “Kids Need the Opportunity to Take Risks, Learn from Mistakes, and Succeed on Their Own”
    BY JENNIFER SEY MAY 28, 2023 SOCIETY 9 MINUTE READ

    EXCERPT: “I was thrilled to receive an honorable mention in Walker Bragman’s May 25 installment of his newsletter, Important Context. The self-styled intrepid leftie/man of the people investigative reporter was at it again, with another takedown of people he doesn’t like. This time he aimed his sights on Jeffrey Tucker, founder and President of Brownstone Institute, and one of very few libertarians who didn’t cave on their supposed principles during covid.

    The headline of Bragman’s piece is one of intrigue and hard-nosed reporting:

    So yeah I’m in the email group. But it’s not like Bragman was on the receiving end of leaked Pentagon emails. I mean who cares about our chit chat? At any rate, there is no gotcha in what I said. I defended the idea that kids need to be exposed to some degree of risk in order to grow up with any degree of strength. Here’s what I wrote:

    “Jeffrey — I like that you mention gymnastics as evidence of young people liking danger. It’s true! Sadly not so much anymore. They want safe spaces. Disagreement is violence. I wish I hadn’t broken so many bones and landed on my head so many times but at least I’m not a wimp. I can endure physical and psychic pain stoically. Ah the good old days. Next I’ll be shouting get off my lawn!”

    Isn’t that the point of the latest “free range” parenting trend? Let your kids take some risks, experience a bit of (controlled) danger, so they learn and grow? Build resilience?

    Free range parenting means letting your kids have the freedom to experience life without us parents hovering and guiding every move they make. It’s letting kids have the room to experience the consequences — good and bad — of their actions. And learn from that. In my mind, it’s being normal. And not thinking you can control your child’s life at every turn ensuring they never experience one unpleasant moment. It’s treating your children like human beings with some degree of autonomy and independent thought, without letting them drive the car completely off the road, so to speak.

    I believe that if we raise our children with the goal of making sure they experience zero unpleasantness, failure, disappointment, pain — they will not be prepared for life, which inevitably includes all of these things. A big part of parenting is equipping your kids to handle it when things get tough, because things always get tough. No matter how special and blessed you are.

    I’d argue that the kids raised with helicopter parents intervening at every moment are the same ones who perceive every sideways glance as a grave social injustice. Sometimes kids are mean. Don’t storm into the school and demand the teacher fix it. Teach your kid to stand up for herself and also, to avoid mean people in the future. I’ve always been a practitioner of this thing — free range parenting — which now has a name. My parenting philosophy — if it can be called such — comes down to two things:

    1. Give your kids the space to figure out who they are, what they like to do, what they’re good at. Without imposing your own hopes, dreams and desires on them. Give them the room to work out who they are as people. Which is usually not a mini version of you.

    2. Make sure they know they are loved. And that you are there to help whenever they need it. As long as “help” doesn’t mean going in to argue with the teacher that they deserved an A not a C on a test they didn’t study for or getting someone to take the SAT for them so they can get into a college you find acceptable —everyone remembers the college admissions scandal, right?

    Everything else, to my mind, is at the margins. Breastfeed for a year, or never. It’s a wash. Sleep train at 3 months or never? It’s a wash. Allowance or no allowance? It’s a wash.

    Is your kid a little weird? So what! Guess what, you’re probably weird too. We’re all a little weird. I definitely am. If your kid is quiet, has trouble making friends, hates sports, loves math, only eats 5 foods, is just a little different — no need to rush to diagnose, therapize and medicate. Are those things sometimes necessary? Sure. But the rush to label any minute difference or quirk, then medicate it into oblivion does not respect a child’s individuality. Plus, then they have to carry a label around with them for the rest of their lives. Celebrate weird. It makes life — and people — interesting. I actually consider “weird” a compliment.”

    More good advice, IMO: https://brownstone.org/articles/kids-need-opportunity-take-risks-learn-from-mistakes-succeed/

    Liked by 1 person

  39. Liked by 1 person

  42. “Can compassion be “weaponized”? Filmmaker Mikki Willis told FLCCC about his personal journey from liberal activist to producer of what Wikipedia calls a misinformation-promoting “conspiracy theory” video.”

    FLCCC ALLIANCE
    MAY 29, 2023

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “I come from the far progressive left,” Mikki Willis told Dr. Paul Marik in a recent interview. “I could have easily gone and been a member of Antifa… I was becoming very radical. How did they get me? Because I consider myself to be a fairly logical person. I look back on the things they used to say and do, and it’s almost like it was another lifetime.”

    Many of us have experienced the same, often unnerving, transformation from one set of beliefs to another and wonder how it happened, and how it happened so fast. “I’ll tell you how they got me,” Mikki continues. “Because I care… All of this is weaponized compassion.”
    (video excerpt w/link to full interview)
    He explains that those pushing the narratives he once subscribed to tug at people’s heartstrings and give them an opportunity to do something supposedly meaningful and good for society. “In the guise of environmentalism and solving racism and gender equality and all these things is a hidden agenda. And that agenda is not benevolent. And that agenda is dividing us as humans, destroying families, destroying everything worth living and dying for really.”

    He goes on to say, “We have a crisis of meaning in our life. Most people are living a meaningless life. So, if you give them an opportunity to march in the streets, they don’t really ask questions of what it’s about. And they don’t do enough research because all they know is they want to be connected with a meaningful tribe. They want to be able to put on a face mask so they can virtue signal to other people to say, ‘We’re the good ones. I’m doing something meaningful right now.’

    Unfortunately, Mikki explains, those people are often being led by the very forces they think they are resisting. “I woke up to that as a young activist,” he says. “I was on the road with Bernie Sanders when I woke up to realize I was being used. All the worst genocides of our history would not have been possible if it weren’t for the people that they lured into their cults to do their dirty work.”

    Mikki’s latest work, The Great Awakening, partially chronicles his own personal awakening. He hopes the film, which premieres on June 3, will help more people to become aware of what is happening. As a next step, he suggests that people can get involved in local politics or activism and take advantage of “people power” to make necessary changes.

    “But at a more spiritual level, it’s really about returning to our humanity. We have been dehumanized, and that’s part of the agenda. And, so, coming back to our humanity… taking off our shoes, walking in the grass, understanding that this planet and this magnificent, brilliant, resilient thing we call nature provides everything that we could possibly need. There’s nothing to learn. There’s only a lot to remember.”

    https://flccc.substack.com/p/can-compassion-be-weaponized

    Liked by 1 person

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  48. doesn’t surprise me one bit

    Liked by 1 person

  49. Joey Mannarino
    @JoeyMannarinoUS
    Thursday we can start calling Pride Month BOYCOTT Month, because there’s no way they won’t be coming for the children 24/7.

    Bud Light wants to attract “younger” drinkers.

    Target wants kids to be crawling and walking billboards for satanic propaganda.

    Now Kohl’s has joined the attack with LGBTQ fashions for young kids.

    And it’s not even June yet.

    So on Thursday, expect an onslaught of LGBTQ propaganda aimed at your children, coming from:

    Candy companies.
    Soda companies.
    Toy makers.
    Video games.

    AND WE WILL BOYCOTT EVERY ONE OF THEM.

    Because WE have the power of the purse and we WILL send the message,

    Hands off our children!

    AND WE WILL BE LAUGHING WHILE WE DO IT.

    Liked by 1 person

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