We hope everyone at the Neighborhood is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend.
This piece from the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers demonstrates why it is so important to celebrate holidays like this one. It shows Easy Company, 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne division as it inadvertantly liberated a concentration camp in Germany.
Now this is obviously my opinion, but I have strong feelings about our men and women in uniform. Say what you will about the reasoning of our wars; I will not broker disrespect of the troops in our armed forces.
Many people may question how our military is used, and the abuses it may have inflicted in its long history. We used ragtag guerrilla tactics, genocidal ruthlessness and foreign assistance to defeat our colonial masters. We vanquished our southern neighbor in order to seize half of its territory. We systematically corraled the indigenous population of our continent to make way for settlement and land speculation.
World War II, however, was our greatest hour. The United States, attacked by surprise and unprepared, rose to defeat two aggressive powers bent on world domination. Yet we did not conquer, we did not subjugate…on the contrary, we liberated occupied peoples and rehabilitated our former enemies.
No army on Earth ever did that before, not in all of human history.
This is why we are American. This is why we should honor our military personnel. This is why we celebrate Memorial Day.
Mr. D's Neighborhood 
Will 9/11 Become Just Another Holiday?
I once heard a comedian on cable say that in a few years, people will celebrate 9/11 with parades and barbecues.
I really wish it wasn’t true…even if history bears out his theory.
Like all civilizations, American society has, at least for itself, a very acute sense of amnesia. No, there weren’t always sales and days off during Veterans Day, Memorial Day and the like. There was a time when these days actually meant what they were supposed to mean: days of remembrance for those who served and died for their country.
Yet along the way, the original purposes of these days has tended to fade, and in the vacuum comes the parades, the holidays, the outings to the shore, the midnight blockbuster sales and the 24-hour oldies nostalgia countdowns on the radio.
More than ever, they are days that delineate less about sacrifice, and more about our excesses.
September 11, a day that brings little joy to anyone, shouldn’t suffer the same fate. Yet at one time, Memorial Day and Veterans Day (or Armistice Day, in its original form) wasn’t that joyful either…and look where they ended up.
Today, I made it a point to not watch anything related to 9/11. It was not out of disrespect–my own story of that day is very personal and painful. It certainly was not out of creating a false holiday for barbecues and such.
I was afraid–deeply afraid–that the events of that day, raw as they were, would somehow morph into the nostalgia that provides a veneer to other holidays cheapened by merriment and shopping sprees.
Yes, the wounds are only ten years old. Yet the memory of the American people is short and selective. It shouldn’t be.
This day is not like any other day. Nor should it be like any other HOLIDAY either.
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