Memorial Day

...Local Paper leads, of course, with auto race results; the TV network on my alarm clock was interviewing surviving WW II WASPs, a group that kinda got shoved under the carpet after the war (to the extent that you can do that to Jackie Cochran, anyway, which turned out to be rather a lot when a majority of the women fliers were after the "Mrs." rating).

Not a whole lot about the fallen. It's become trite to refer to all the lost warriors of all our wars as "heros." Some even meet the cinematic criteria; most of 'em would have told you they were just doing their job, attention on the task at hand, "heroism" the farthest thing from their thoughts. They were there to do what needed to be done and fell in the doing -- and, movies and novels aside, that's heroism.

You and me, we're not a network or a newspaper; we can take a little while to stop and remember; we can pause to acknowledge their effort and sacrifice.

If you do nothing else this Decoration Day, at least stop, step back from the grill and ponder the meaning of this day.

Update: stopped by my father's gravesite this afternoon. He was a Naval Reservist. Three years and I still feel a pang. I still miss him. Should have brought a flag.