Today is Memorial Day in the US. For most of my life, it has been a day of BBQ and relaxation. After 9/11, however, it took on a different meaning. Most of my Mizzou classmates knew someone who had been called up. At the school where my mother taught, near a naval training center, there were children who's mother or father also got called up.
Memorial Day became less a day of BBQ and relaxation, and more a day of reflection and appreciation for those who so willingly dedicated more than the rest of us. Shortly after I got laid off, I gave some serious thought to enlisting. I jokingly referred to it as an all-expenses paid trip to someplace warm and exotic. Some close friends pointed to my penchant for sarcasm and questioning of rules and procedures as things that would not go over well at boot camp.
Enlisting did not seem to be in the cards for me, so I did what I do best: I read.
Ghost Wars. Hard Corps. Black Banners.
Good reads.
Time passed, and the desire to enlist faded but not the desire to understand and pay respect. As I look at my various social media feeds this morning, I am not alone.
Viewing Memorial Day from Canada, I'm struck by a discrepancy in patriotism. Americans are fiercely patriotic, thanking those who served and expressing gratitude for what has been sacrificed. It was not an uncommon thing, for awhile, to be in an airport and see people go up to troops heading to catch a plane, or just getting off, and shaking their hands.
Granted, Canada does not have the military history the US does and its military is decidedly smaller. But even Canadians have had to make sacrifices, but you wouldn't know it unless you dig into Canadian history.
America is a fiercely independent country. And today we honor and thank those that made it that way, and help keep it that way. Today is a day we do not take our independence for granted.
A very curious thing to witness.