I am posting this for Memorial Weekend or can we say just another golf weekend for a former president. Who knows, maybe he will do something this year to honor those people that he called suckers and losers. Biden will probably go to a National Cemetery but then, if I was him, I would be with the grieving parents in Texas. A lot of us will relax, cookout and just enjoy the day. How many of us will reflect about the people that served and of the ones that gave their lives for our Country? I know I will.

We honor our Veterans way too little for all they sacrificed for our nation. I know that there are some that feel that our Veterans are suckers and losers especially the ones that have lost their lives. Those are the people that believe that people have been put on this earth to serve them. You know the type. Rich and arrogant. Think that they know more than anyone around them. Talk tough but always are dependant of someone else doing the fighting for them. Sound like anyone you know. Yes me too.

Now Memorial Day originally was called Decoration Day. It was formally observe on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. It was changed to the last Monday of May in 1971 and was now called Memorial Day. It has always been a day of mourning for our deceased members of the Military. The tradition was for volunteers to decorate the grave of our veterans with an American Flag because of their sacrifice for our nation. I remember as a boy living next to Greenridge Cemetery in Kenosha, WI and all the graves being decorated with little American flags. It was a pretty sight and one that I have always thought about every Memorial day. On Memorial Day the Rambler Band would march into the Cemetery with the veterans and other dignitaries. My friend Jim and I would ride our bikes along with them. There would be a ceremony that ended with the playing of taps. Because of how the day was observed back then I have never lost the reason why we were there, it is a Memorial Day. In the afternoon there was always a parade down 60^th street. I actually saw my current wife the first time riding a float in that parade but that is another story.

As I have grown older I have realized that we as a nation is not doing enough for those that have sacrificed so much. Every day we should be thanking them for that sacrifice, not just the few designated days like Memorial Day and Veterans Day. They have answered the call of our Government and we should never forget that. I see a whole lot if commercials for the Wounded Warrior Project and it just drives me up the wall that there has to be charities that have to beg for money so our wounded soldiers can have better care. Where is this appreciating government and nation that sent them in the first place? They should be the first in line for care. When new technology comes along they should be in the front of the line for that too. We should never have a commercial begging for money to help our Veterans. We as a nation should not be just parading them around a couple of days of the year and then ignore them the rest. I would rather we honor them every day. It is estimated that 76,000 veterans are homeless and sleep in the streets. Many communities treat the homeless as criminals. Well some of those criminals defended out country and did not get the proper care when they returned from the horrors that they experienced. Whose fault is that? It is all of our fault for not electing people that truly want to honor those people that sacrificed so much. We elect people that treat our veterans as suckers and losers.

I have been to two National Cemeteries in my lifetime, Arlington Memorial and the Little Bighorn Nation Cemetery. Both were very moving experiences that will stay with me until the day I die. You see a lot of great people there that not enough people know their stories. I have stood at Audie Murphy’s grave in Arlington. I wonder how many of our young people know that movie star, Audie Murphy, was the most decorated soldier from WW2. I have stood at the grave of Major Reno’s grave at the Little Bighorn where he chose to be buried joining the men that he lost there. I saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. I wish all Americans would make a pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime to Arlington.

I have asked this question before. When are old and in some cases draft dodging men going to stop sending our sons and daughters into battle? Too many times the cause is not good enough to justify the lives of those brave sons and daughters. It is too easy for people to send other people’s sons and daughters to die in some foreign country with no real objective. We send them to defend oil and then let the oil companies hold the American Consumer hostage. We send them to destroy the Taliban that harbored the 9/11 terrorists only to negotiate with those same terrorist. He even wanted to bring those terrorist to Camp David. When we withdrew from Afghanistan we didn’t have a plan on how to do that. How to withdrawal should have been part of those negotiations. Our soldiers died from negotiating with terrorist and not planning properly.

We have to start doing more than honoring those brave men and women more than a couple days of the year. We have to elect people that will not think of then as suckers and losers to do old men’s bidding but instead the backbone of this great nation. American was not made great without the sacrifices of our sons and daughter.

 

 

Homeless Veterans Facts - Protect Our Troops