Comments on: Memorial Day Musings http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/ Uplifting, edifying, and enriching reading by and for Latter-day Saint Women Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:40:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Naiah http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-943 Tue, 30 May 2006 16:48:02 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-943 queuno-- Great link. Ahhh, wikipedia... queuno–
Great link. Ahhh, wikipedia…

]]> by: Michelle http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-930 Mon, 29 May 2006 22:48:14 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-930 p.s. Thanks, queuno , for the link. It's a lot more than I ever knew. I really didn't mean to trivialize or cheapen that original purpose, so sorry that it felt that way to you. p.s. Thanks, queuno , for the link. It’s a lot more than I ever knew. I really didn’t mean to trivialize or cheapen that original purpose, so sorry that it felt that way to you.

]]> by: Michelle http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-922 Mon, 29 May 2006 18:51:26 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-922 ...but if I have offended anyone, I truly apologize! …but if I have offended anyone, I truly apologize!

]]> by: Michelle http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-921 Mon, 29 May 2006 18:17:49 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-921 Tanya, Thanks for your comments. I woke up this morning worried about posting something centered on an American holiday. Even for those who aren't American, maybe it never hurts to "remember"...??? Tanya,
Thanks for your comments. I woke up this morning worried about posting something centered on an American holiday. Even for those who aren’t American, maybe it never hurts to “remember”…???

]]> by: Tanya http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-919 Mon, 29 May 2006 18:05:52 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-919 I suppose I have to disagree with queuno, there is alot to Memorial day not just remembering those that have died in military service. I do believe that is what it was set for but there are so many ways to remember our freedom and why it is so precious. IT is more than an American Holiday, at least for me with my Canadian blood it is. I do remember those that have gone before me, that helped to give my life and the freedom to choose and to live. Memorial day is what it means, "In Memory Of." If Michele, as she said found ways to make it even more meaningful and purposeful in her heart, a more sacred day than just a day of a Party, than I say bless her heart. She is trying to approach a day that can be difficult for some of us to understand and appreciate. I don't have family directly that died in wars. So don't put someone down because she is trying to remember all the reasons of why we should be grateful this day, after all isn't it better to remember, than forget? She isn't trying to change the day for the country, just make it something more for her. Thanks Michele for the reminder of what gratitude is all about on this day. I suppose I have to disagree with queuno, there is alot to Memorial day not just remembering those that have died in military service. I do believe that is what it was set for but there are so many ways to remember our freedom and why it is so precious. IT is more than an American Holiday, at least for me with my Canadian blood it is. I do remember those that have gone before me, that helped to give my life and the freedom to choose and to live. Memorial day is what it means, “In Memory Of.” If Michele, as she said found ways to make it even more meaningful and purposeful in her heart, a more sacred day than just a day of a Party, than I say bless her heart. She is trying to approach a day that can be difficult for some of us to understand and appreciate. I don’t have family directly that died in wars.
So don’t put someone down because she is trying to remember all the reasons of why we should be grateful this day, after all isn’t it better to remember, than forget?
She isn’t trying to change the day for the country, just make it something more for her. Thanks Michele for the reminder of what gratitude is all about on this day.

]]> by: queuno http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-914 Mon, 29 May 2006 16:37:54 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-914 Sorry to be the wet blanket, but I disagree. Don't change the meaning of Memorial Day. If you don't have graves you want to visit, or war dead you want to memorialize, then just have the barbecue. [I will point out, Memorial Day is not Veteran's Day, and it's not Fallen Firefighters Day, and it's not Fallen Policemen Day.] I (and all of us) have been blessed by the sacrifice of ancestors who fought in the various wars of the nation -- we can trace an ancestor to every significant US war except the Civil War, because most of the ancestors were busy crossing the plains at that point. Ancestors were instrumental in winning battles at the Revolutionary War. I have an uncle (alive) decorated in Vietnam for saving troops caught under fire. I have an uncle-in-law who was a pilot in 'Nam and taught a generation of pilots afterward. My grandfather and my wife's grandfather both served in the Pacific Theater in World War II. My wife's grandfather spent countless years serving those veterans who came back. I'm not a warmonger. I'm not a pacifist. I am, though, grateful I didn't have to serve in the military. I rejected a chance for an ROTC scholarship. I have serious problems with the military as a career, and I would probably counsel my son to avoid the military. But that doesn't change the fact that the sacrifices of my ancestors and relatives made it possible for me to make that choice. This isn't a political day, and it's not a day to ascribe any "additional" meaning. This is an American holiday to honor the war dead (and by popular expansion that has become accepted), relatives that have passed on. Feel/believe/politicize what you want on this day. Celebrate it. Or don't. But don't cheapen it by adding any other "meaning" -- even well-intentioned religious meaning -- to it (you can steal July 24, for all I care). If you don't wish to celebrate the meaning, then please, just do the barbecue, and perhaps show your son this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day Sorry to be the wet blanket, but I disagree.

Don’t change the meaning of Memorial Day. If you don’t have graves you want to visit, or war dead you want to memorialize, then just have the barbecue. [I will point out, Memorial Day is not Veteran’s Day, and it’s not Fallen Firefighters Day, and it’s not Fallen Policemen Day.]

I (and all of us) have been blessed by the sacrifice of ancestors who fought in the various wars of the nation — we can trace an ancestor to every significant US war except the Civil War, because most of the ancestors were busy crossing the plains at that point. Ancestors were instrumental in winning battles at the Revolutionary War. I have an uncle (alive) decorated in Vietnam for saving troops caught under fire. I have an uncle-in-law who was a pilot in ‘Nam and taught a generation of pilots afterward. My grandfather and my wife’s grandfather both served in the Pacific Theater in World War II. My wife’s grandfather spent countless years serving those veterans who came back.

I’m not a warmonger. I’m not a pacifist. I am, though, grateful I didn’t have to serve in the military. I rejected a chance for an ROTC scholarship. I have serious problems with the military as a career, and I would probably counsel my son to avoid the military. But that doesn’t change the fact that the sacrifices of my ancestors and relatives made it possible for me to make that choice.

This isn’t a political day, and it’s not a day to ascribe any “additional” meaning. This is an American holiday to honor the war dead (and by popular expansion that has become accepted), relatives that have passed on.

Feel/believe/politicize what you want on this day. Celebrate it. Or don’t. But don’t cheapen it by adding any other “meaning” — even well-intentioned religious meaning — to it (you can steal July 24, for all I care).

If you don’t wish to celebrate the meaning, then please, just do the barbecue, and perhaps show your son this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

]]> by: Naiah http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-910 Mon, 29 May 2006 15:00:09 +0000 http://roxcy.synthian.org/2006/05/28/memorial-day-musings/#comment-910 Thanks, Michelle. Thanks, Michelle.

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