floundersgreatadventure

Tomorrow is Memorial Day in the United States and I wonder how many celebrate for its original intention and how many just use it as an excuse to party. I had written a couple of lines about the day in my last post but this time I want to really take a look at it. I doubt most of the young people down the shore will even take a second to think about the true meaning of the day, after all people don’t like to remember bad shit. Memorial Day was started around 1868 after the American civil war and was named Declaration Day; it was a way to honor our dead soldiers. The term Memorial Day was first used in 1882 but didn’t come into common use till after World War II. In 1966 President Johnson named Waterloo New York as the place of origin of Memorial Day there are others that make claim and none of them can produce anything more than a legend as proof. The day had been traditionally the 30th day of May, but in 1968 congress moved it and three other holidays to Mondays to create three day weekends, hence Memorial day became the last Monday in May. There have been movements to go back to the more traditional day such as the VFW changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.[40]That’s a short history of the day and by no means complete. What bothers me is that the true meaning of the day has been brushed aside by binge drinking and BBQ’s at the shore. I hope that at least some of you will but down that shot of Jaegermiester for a moment and remember the men and women who gave their lives so you could have that BBQ. This is Flounder saluting men and women from everywhere that gave their lives in defense of their counties. CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.