Jack’s “Pet Peeve” Please Don’t Say “Happy Memorial Day”
57% of Americans Don’t Know Why We Celebrate Memorial Day.
We all have things that bother us. This has always bothered me and I just received an email telling me to have a “Happy Memorial Day”. Translation: “Happy Dead Soldier’s Day”. I find it hard to be happy about those who gave their lives for our Freedom. Do I believe people who say “Happy Memorial Day” mean any disrespect? Of course not. We have though, as a society, taken any holiday as a chance to celebrate that freedom that our armed forces have secured for us. Hey, we love to party. I get it.
Let’s review: Memorial Day is the day we honor FALLEN members of the Armed Forces who died in service. 57% of American’s don’t know that. It’s not for anything else.
33% of Americans don’t know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, when we honor ALL veterans. Veterans Day for ALL Soldiers, Memorial Day for those who have died while serving.
Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer and that is, I believe, the reason that people add the word “Happy” to the Memorial Day greeting. One event is happy…the start of the summer season. One event is sad…the soldiers that have died fighting for our country.
That said, 83% of us think it’s important to do something to commemorate the holiday. 8 out of 10 people say they’ll have to do things a little differently this weekend because of the lockdown.
The top ways to commemorate Memorial Day are by flying a flag . . . leaving a flag or flowers at a soldier’s grave . . . attending a patriotic event . . . flying a flag at half-mast . . . and visiting a monument or war memorial. Have a “Good Memorial Day”. Make it Good by remembering our fallen soldiers. Make it Good by appreciating our freedoms and make it Good by spending time with and appreciating your family. Hopefully we all learned from this pandemic that we can’t and don’t want to…do this thing called life on our own! I also used to say “Happy Memorial Day” until I stopped…and gave it some thought. Even the touching video below that I found on youtube incorporates some Veterans Day sentiment at the beginning which is fine by me. The confusion is just because anything honoring soldiers, makes everyone blur the line between the two holidays.
