Memorial Day

In November we have Veterans' Day. In May we have Memorial Day. 

Memorial Day has a very interesting history.  I always thought it originated as a memorial to honor soldiers killed during World War I (probably because of the tear-inspiring poem "In Flanders Fields") -- but not so.  Some of its traditions actually date back to before the end of the Civil War.  See History of Memorial Day for more information. 

The tradition of the red poppy is also fascinating (quoted from History of Memorial Day):

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

It seems to me that our country is more divided now than ever before since her start as a nation, more divided even than during the Civil War and its aftermath.  People are HATING each other, really gut-wrenching HATING each other - wanting to kill each other and sometimes doing just that, just because of skin color, religion, politics.  Why?  Ask yourself - why is this happening? 

Now, after a dozen years at war, we have veterans coming home to -  a fricking mess of a country.  No jobs.  Little help from overwhelmed Veterans' Centers.  Scant sympathy from politicians who don't want to spend money on the very soldiers they so easily committed to fight wars on foreign soil.  Soldiers in record numbers are applying for disability benefits because of horrible conditions they now suffer from, some physical, some emotional and mental, conditions that have been inflicted upon them during our years at war. 

Just one of dozens of similar stories from around the nation, this one from The Boston Globe: 

45% of new veterans file claims for disabilityThose returning from 2 wars have complicated care needs

By Marilynn Marchione

Associated Press May 28, 2012

Former President George W. Bush, the
man who started the "war on terror," greets
Melissa Stockwell, a former Army first lieutenant,
following a mountain bike ride in Texas
for veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan

What will our government's response be?  Will certain politicians refuse to raise taxes in order to pay for the necessary care and services our veterans need and deserve for sacrificing so much in the service of their country?  Will certain politicians cut their plush salaries and benefits, and cut their staffing in half, and close their fancy offices, in order to voluntarily provide more funding to the Veterans Administration?  Will certain politicians insist that the SNAP program be cut even more -- the very program that provides food to millions of veterans' wives and children -- in order to pay for the medical care those same veterans now need?  How many new veterans' medical centers could be constructed if the Bush era tax cuts to the top 1% in this country were eliminated?  Do the math, figure it out.

If you are not outraged by what is going on in this country right now at this moment, why aren't you?

Here's Dad, who served in WWII and was awarded a purple heart for wounds suffered during his service.  He, like millions of other WWII and Korean War vets, didn't apply for the benefits to which they were entitled under the law!  If they had, what politicians would have dared tell them NO, WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GIVE YOU WHAT WE PROMISED?

Dad died close to Veterans' Day, on November 3, 2002, and was one of several veterans featured in an article in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about that generation of soldiers now fast disappearing.  They are dying, one by one, thousands every month.  Soon, there will be none of them left. 

From the newspaper article, the family at Dad's Memorial Service, our family
at the Veterans' Cemetery in Union Grove, Wisconsin, November, 2002.

I'm pretty sure what Dad would say about all this if he were still here.  It has nothing to do with politics, whether you're "left" or "right," "red" or "blue."  It has everything to do with keeping the promises we, as a nation, made to those whom we sent off to fight for us.  If we cannot keep our promises to those brave men and women, what the hell good are we as a people, as a nation?

Three Day Weekend!

Memorial Day is this coming Monday.  I have a 3-day weekend and I should be hard at work stripping wallpaper in the family room on that never-ending going-nowhere "re-do" - OHMYGODDESS, why oh why oh why did you ever allow me to start it????  I'm stalled and have no desire whatsoever to pull out the new wallpaper scorer and scraper I bought a few weeks ago (in a fit of madness).

The house is still a mess from last week's whole-house carpet and furniture cleaning.  Then I got sick and next to nothing has been done all week, although I am feeling much better now. 

Family room still torn apart, didn't even pick up the little
white plastics from underneath the chair feet.  Doing
laundry (closet is overflowing and I've run out of socks,
so it's time, I think.)  Living room is in better condition - just
don't look at all the stuff stashed behind the sofa, eek!

Jan knows how to bring rain. All I have to do is haul out two heavy hoses, connect them together, drag one end to the spigot out back (because the spigot out front has a thingy on it that sprays the water anywhere except into the hose where it is supposed to go, so I can't use it and no, darlings, I have not been able to get the damn thingy OFF, and neither has brother-in-law Fred, brother-in-law Jerry, or honorary brother-in-law Otto (one of Fred's younger brothers), and they are all strong men with TOOLS.  So, the hose gets connected to the back spigot and I get a lot of exercise tugging 100 feet of hose this way and that, and then running from front to back and back to front, etc. etc., and sometimes even through the house because that's the shortest way from the back to the front, to size up how the water is "sprinkling" out of the sprinkler thingy. 

Anyway, I put the broken sprinkler thingy on the hose (how it got broken is a whole 'nother story that is best not gone into) and watered the south part of the front lawn Thursday morning (early, after taking 30 minutes to get the hose hauled out, hooked up, etc., before I ever turned on the water -- all of this in my pajamas, pink slippers and robe, LOL!) and again last evening when I got home from the office -- before the storms finally came. 

This was the yard one Sunday evening a few weeks ago.  It's a little hard to see through the downpour but my usual spring-time swimming pool appeared below the retaining wall near the far fence line -- you can sort of see it to the right of what looks like an "island" of flowers.

But now, the grass was DRY!  Turning brown.  If it's one thing I cannot stand, it's a damn brown lawn.  Of course, that could be those blasted sod web worms too.  So tonight after I cut out front, even though I was fearful tired and sweaty and just wanted to drink another gallon of cheap pink wine with my feet up on the back deck, I pulled out the wheely thingy that the weed and feed and bug killer gets dumped into and I laid down a ton of it over the front lawn.  Back and forth, back and forth and poof, all the granules are gone just like that!  Maybe I had the holes on the bottom open too wide?  Whatever...

If those sod web worms are eating my lawn, I swear to Goddess if it is the last thing I do, I WILL prevail over them, even if it takes me all frigging summer and a thousand dollars worth of bug killer to get rid of them!  So, I'll probably have a horrific nightmare about a giant sod web worm coming after me from underneath my bed...

The rains came last night, as I said.  And again, and again, in rolling waves throughout Friday night.  No severe weather was threatened but it sure got noisy out there.  Especially with my bedroom windows open.  The winds kept switching up as this front battled that front for supremacy over southeastern Wisconsin, but for the most part it wasn't fiercely windy so I was able to keep my south-facing window open a few inches, which isn't protected by much of an overhang like the west window, and it was fine.  Hardly any rain came in.   Fell asleep to the sound of rain on the roof.  About 4:30 Saturday morning a loud storm came rolling in from the west, just as the birds outside were going into full song.  There is nothing quite like slowly awakening to bird song on a cool morning, snuggled under the sheet and comforter, the windows open, the air fresh, light not even yet shimmering in the east but you know it's coming because the birds are singing.  Ahhhhh, sheer Heaven! Listened to the patter of the rain on the roof, lots of lightning flashes and booms of thunder.  The bed even rattled a couple of times, it was that loud and that close as it passed overhead toward the southeast.  I fell back asleep...

It continued to rain until about 10 a.m. Saturday morning, and everyone's grass is already looking much much happier!  The last of the clouds soon wafted off to the southeast and by 11 a.m. when Ann arrived for our Memorial Day trek to the bank (I empty out my year's worth of coins collected in a glass wine carafe - they wouldn't be my coins if they weren't held in a wine carafe, darlings), a chat with the old soldier who sells Memorial Day poppies inside the bank lobby.  He had pictures from when he served in the Korean War.  I thought of Dad, and how so not fair it was for him to pass when he was only 80.  But I know he was tired, and he was sick, and he was tired of being sick, and it was just his time.  Still, not fair.  We none of us ever got to really say goodbye, because he was unconscious when he was taken to the hopsital that final time, and he never regained consciousness.  It's important to be able to say goodbye.

My poppies this year.  The one on the jacket is from the old vet
at the bank on Saturday.  The one on my bag, a more traditional
form made out of crepe paper, was bought outside a bank
downtown during lunch hour earlier last week.  Who will sell
these poppies once these old vets are gone?  Will anyone
really remember what they mean, what they stand for?

And then off to lunch at Olive Garden.  Home by 2 p.m. and plenty of time to get some work done.

NOT.  Well, I did hang two pictures above my desk in the living room, and fussed over a deskscape for hours.  Still not happy with it but it is looking like my desk again, with messy piles of research here and there and things I can look at that make me smile.  Who will care for them once I'm gone, all these things I love so much, that have so much meaning for me, and for no one else?

It was cool last night; so cool outside, in fact, that I had the windows only half open and slept under the comforter!  It's hard to believe that today and Monday are forecast as hot and steamy, and into the rest of next week as well.  Damn!  High of 93 F today and perhaps severe storms tomorrow.  Which means I'll have to cut the grass out back while looking like Bogey pulling the boat in "The African Queen".  Geez Louise!

Today dawned cloudy, overcast, cool.  The house is nice and cool, and that's good, because by 8:30 the clouds had blown away and the sun is now out full force.  My crazy neighbor to the northwest already was out cutting his grass, but he had the right idea - got it done early (he fired up the lawn mower before 8:30 on a SUNDAY, GEEZ!) before the heat and humidity comes.  As soon as I finish this, I'll switch out loads of laundry and then get out back and get that grass cut.

Here are some photos of my blowsy peonies:

Okay, that grass aint gonna cut itself, got to get my rear in gear.  Maybe I'll have a hot ham sandwich first...

Obama Goes to Bat for the Queen

All right!

It was evident that a few months ago when President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama travelled to London and met with Queen Elizabeth II, an immediate connection between the parties was made on a deeply personal level. (Photo: Queen Elizabeth II and Michelle Obama during a personal moment, April 2, 2009 - the Queen was not offended). Personally, I was pleased to see this, as I deeply appreciate the long-term historical connection between Great Britain and the United States of America. I think sometimes people tend to forget about the abiding ties between our countries, forged through fire and iron.

I was chagrined to read recent press reports that the French government had neglected to issue an invitation to Queen Elizabeth to participate in D-Day memorial events.

I didn't write about it this year on Memorial Day, but it was in my mind - and the coverage of veterans in our local newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, hasn't helped my emotions. It has published a series of stories on local veterans of WWII, who are dying at the rate of about 1,000 (?) veterans each month. (Not sure if that means 1,000 U.S. WWII veterans a month or worldwide WWII veterans a month. When my dad died, my recollection is that veterans of his era were dying at the rate of 5,000 a month. (Image: my dad, WWII, personal archive). If the 1,000 a month figure is correct, that means that a lot of deaths have occurred since Dad died, and the death rate has slowed, only because there aren't a whole lot of WWII vets left). My dad, a WWII vet, died in early November, 2002. Since he died, my emotions seem to be closer to the surface of my "skin" than ever before, perhaps because I'm dealing with issues of my own mortality. Perhaps because I realize the most important things in life the older I get.


Anyway, knowing how much Queen Elizabeth's family, and Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, did for morale in Great Britain and the British Empire during WWII, and knowing how many British men died during and after crossing the English Channel to Dunkirk, my thought is that of course she should be invited as a representative of the British people, in addition to PM Gordon Brown. (Image: then Princess Elizabeth in uniform. Princess Elizabeth served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II).

Call me sentimental - I freely admit it. Queen Elizabeth is of the same generation as my parents; she got married in 1947. She, and my folks (dad now deceased), have lived through the most incredible historic events and hard times that we, their children, can't even imagine.

Bravo to President Obama for sending this blatant message to the French Government. Story from "The Caucus" at The New York Times:

June 1, 2009, 4:10 pm — Updated: 5:26 pm -->
White House Seeks a Proper Invitation for the Queen
By Helene Cooper

The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain’s Queen Elizabeth — reportedly miffed, according to the British Press, at not being invited to the D-Day anniversary festivities in Normandy this weekend — gets a formal invitation.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that President Obama thinks the queen should be present at the event on Saturday. “We are working with those involved to see if we can make that happen,” Mr. Gibbs said.

Mr. Gibbs’s comments came after Buckingham Palace pointedly noted last week that the queen didn’t get an invite, an omission which has had the British press fuming. Mr. Obama is attending the event (French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited him two months ago) as is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr. Sarkozy has said that the queen is welcome to come to the ceremony, but Obama administration officials say that they would like to see her receive a formal invitation.

Driving home that point, Mr. Gibbs joked at the end of his daily briefing with reporters Monday: “Will you — will you — will you please pass that directly to the queen for me?”

Memorial Day 2008

My Dad died in early November, 2002, at 80 years of age. He was a WWII vet, like the fathers of so many of my baby-boomer generation. I think about my Dad all the time, but especially on Memorial Day.

This year, I noticed for the first time that there were no veterans out in the shopping malls and the stores selling red poppies. Why not? What happened? I've always bought a poppy, even when I was just a kid and I didn't even know what it meant, just because Dad said we should always remember and buy a poppy from a veteran. Even when I was a punk-butt teenager who thought she knew it all, I always bought a poppy (although I would hide it inside my purse). As I got older and learned something more about life and the world, I would seek out the veterans who'd be out on the street corners or inside shopping centers selling their poppies a few weeks before Memorial Day. But I saw no veterans selling poppies this year. Is it because so many VFW posts have closed, all their members either dead or too old to participate any more? Where are the younger veterans? Do they not care to carry on the tradition (at least, in my hometown)?

This is my Dad in his uniform (Army, enlisted man). He sure was a handsome guy. He had light blue eyes and curly hair. As a kid his hair was light blonde but it grew darker as he grew older. By the time I was born in 1951 all vestiges of his blondness had gone, leaving him with brown curly hair, but he passed on the blonde hair and blue eyes to several of my siblings. In the strange way of genetics, I inherited the "dark" streak from the Newton side of the family - olive-toned skin, dark auburn hair, brown/hazel eyes and a petite bone structure, like two of my "Italian" looking Newton aunts! My hair was always stick straight until a few years ago, I noticed a definite "frizz" starting to develop, much to my horror! Now when I wash my hair and let it dry naturally, it is quite wavy (and it frizzes in the humidity of the Wisconsin climate, eek!) A legacy from my Dad, I guess, that is showing up in my "mature" years (no comments from the peanut gallery about my age, thank you very much!)

To all of our veterans and their families, my heart is with you today. I miss my dad a lot, but I'm glad to have known him. He was a wonderful man.