Grief shouldn't be a campaign stop | Salon.com
By: CK Smith
the maga savior, keeping the holiday memory of those that died trying to defend what he's intent on destroying classy ...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Holidays — our "holy days" — are meant to meet the moment. Be joyful when it's a day for celebration. Be solemn when it's a day for mourning.
Some are made for celebration, like Holi or Thanksgiving, with full plates and full hearts. Others ask us to reflect: Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Ash Wednesday. And some, like Christmas or Passover, mix both to honor the sacred while gathering together.
Memorial Day was never meant to be cheery. Originally called Decoration Day, it was created in 1868 by Union Gen. John A. Logan as a nationwide day of mourning. May 30 was chosen because it didn't mark a specific Civil War battle, just the idea of loss itself. That first observance included a speech by future President James Garfield at Arlington National Cemetery, where 5,000 people decorated the graves of 20,000 fallen soldiers.
For decades, Memorial Day honored only those lost in the Civil War. But as American wars stacked up — World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan — the day expanded. What began as flowers on graves became a national pause to remember every soldier who didn't make it home.
In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, moving Memorial Day to the last Monday in May. It became an official federal holiday in 1971.
And it's not "happy."
We take the day off. We barbecue. We shop a little. But we also try — just a little — to remember. Because that's the point. These holy days only work when we respect their meaning.
Someone should remind President Trump.
This morning, he attended a ceremony at Arlington, joined by Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Flags hung like ceremonial drapes. Soldiers stood in formal tribute. It was, for a moment, appropriately somber.
And then he got online.
On Truth Social, unlike any former president, Trump shouted his Memorial Day message in all caps. He sent "HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY" greetings to the "SCUM TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY" and others he believes are persecuting him.
Because grief, apparently, is no excuse to stay off the internet. Holy days deserve reverence. This one, especially, asks for quiet. For reflection. For gratitude.
But for this White House, even remembrance is a performance. Even mourning is a stage.
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this maga projection totally explains their biden dementia smoke screen being continuously propped up in the media ...
I'm sick of these guys. Just sick. trmp is the worst person to ever live. He needs to learn humility and respect. But at this late stage, it's never gonna happen
we're so lucky to have a POTUS that represents all americans ... /S
He despises people like us because we work for a living. The only ones he likes are the ones with all the money that buy his worthless shit
I wonder how many people death wish Donald Trump from time to time. Its probably not an insignificant number.
my late uncle exclaimed to me many times how shocked he was that an assassination hadn't happened in the 1st term.
And we they did, they missed...
Could hear the groans echo around the world
.
1 inch to the right was a whole different world future ...
People can't read thoughts....
He is one step above Putin in many eyes....
putin is way more intelligent than trumpski is ...
A great day to watch "Midway" again, either version.
While only 362 Americans died that day, almost all were the Navy's best pilots, navigators and airmen who perished in midair explosions, fire, or crashing into the sea. A few survived only to be lost at sea or picked up by the Japanese and executed.
Hero's all.
I always get a big video dose of WWII on this holiday. I remember my grandpa that served USN pacific, my great uncle C a pacific submariner, my uncle pete airborne europe, and my uncle H in the atlantic merchant marine. they all made it back, but they also made it a point to remember all their buddies that didn't. the latest family service member loss was my uncle this april in texas.
One of my uncles was in India, Burma, China. A tough slog. So was my mom's cousin's husband. They never talked about it. I know it was rough. My father was mostly assigned to guard German POWs held in Texas, believe it or not.
One of my father's friends was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. He told my father that he got rid of his dog tags just before he was captured because they identified him as Jewish. He never talked about his experience as a POW except to tell my father they had soup one day and a horse's lip was floating in it.
One of my grandfathers came to the U.S. from a village in Belarus in about 1910 when he was 15 years old. His family in Belarus were all killed by the Germans one day, taken out in the forest and shot, except for a couple of cousins who escaped and spent the rest of the war living in the forest fighting with the partisans. Bad times. They survived and lived in Israel after the war.
he was incredibly lucky, the SS was executing american POW's there. my uncle pete was at the bulge and as soon as news of nazi atrocities with POW's leaked, our guys weren't accepting surrendering prisoners anymore, especially those in SS uniforms ...