You didn't forget to remember, did you?

My wife and I will be at the veteran's cemetary later today. In addition to the persons dead in the current wars, we have family members to honor.

did you forget to rememeber?
Nope..







Austin State Cemetery

Confederate burial grounds

I showed my niece the war memorials in a local cemetery.

Here too. We're always reminded of it here...

God Bless The USA by Lee Greenwood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qFlUZs66y8



For my dad who was shot twice in WWII and for all those that gave and still do.

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RA13282462
Rest in peace

This is the National Cemetary in Westwood.

source

I worked in a building across the street from it for nearly ten years, but for two of them I had a lab where I could look out the window, kind of diagonally, towards the cemetary. That was in the mid to later sixties. In memory now, I heard taps every day, but it probably wasn't every single day, usually around ten in the morning.

Around the same time, my father was buried there, and, a decade later, my mother. I didn't lose personal friends or family in Vietnam, but no, I don't forget.

War changes lives forever--and not only the lives of the soldiers.

I don't forget.

Thanks for the thread, Joe. No, I didn't forget and I doubt any of the people who have seved in any war will ever forget.

No, we will never forget.

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.


-- John Donne

It's Fleet Week here in New York. The sailors are everywhere, riding the subway, dashing across Broadway at 59th Street by the Trump Tower, standing in the lobby of the Empire State Building. I believe each one of them is issued an official Navy grin. I didn't see a serious face on any of them.

Friday was Marine Day in Central Park. I came jogging by just after they had finished doing some close order drill and the people were gathered in around the knots of Marines, talking to them, asking them questions, looking at them or, in most cases , looking up at them. From a distance, I thought perhaps my eyes had gotten skewed in some way, making the Marines look huge next to the average joes in the crowd, but as I got closer I could see that, no, these men were a lot bigger, a lot broader, and a lot sharper looking than the fellas attired in cutoffs and torn t-shirts talking to them.

I got within a few feet of the scene and was once again surprised, because instead of the chiseled tough guy robot faces my brain was expecting to see, there were the faces of everyday men - the guys from down at the car parts house or the print shop or maybe one or two mugs from the local precinct house, those kinds of faces.

These Marines, these warriors, these are not some machines we send to fight. These are our next door neighbor's husband. Your second cousin, Tom. The son of that guy from down around the corner. They are trained to do their duty at a moment's notice, full of the fitful violence and horror of war, but seen here on this cut-grass smelling, sunny day in Spring, they are the laughing boys from the soccer team, the early morning lifeguard squad, the construction crew regulars at the diner three doors down from here.

Boyos. Guys. Fellas. Buddies. Pals.

Men.

Joe(just like us, unlike us, much more than us)Nation

Today's Gasoline Alley comic strip:

Memorial Day began as an observation of respect for those who died in the American Civil War. It might do well for us to remember that the point was to remember all those who died, and to heal the wounds in this country from that terrible cauldron from which our people had all emerged.

While we honor those who have died in our wars, we might well remember that those whom we oppose politically are Americans, just as we are, and deserve as much respect from us as we think we deserve ourselves.

I mean no disrespect.

I wonder how poignant that cartoon would have been had a crescent with a turban been placed in the middle?

For my late Uncle A___, who defended the Panama Canal during WWII.
For my father, and my father-in-law, serving as a radio operator and in troop morale during Korea.
For my cousin M___, who went to Vietnam.
For the nephew of my parents' neighbor, F___ (her nephew was C___), killed in Iraq.
And for my coworker, T___, a US Marine, semper fi.

Thank you all.

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the young men gone?
They're all in uniform.
Oh, when will you ever learn?
Oh, when will you ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
They've gone to graveyards, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the graveyards gone?
They're covered with flowers, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls picked them, every one.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?