* A MEMORIAL DAY RE-POST *

Every Memorial Day I take time to remember what this day is really about. Many years ago, it was known as Decoration Day. That's because it was the day families and friends laid wreaths and other patriotic decorations on the graves of loved ones....those who died in wars.

Some men come home from wars, but many others do not. I am alive today because of one man that did not come home....my mother's first husband. He was killed during WWII, and that was heartbreaking for her and her two young daughters. A few years later, though, she met and married my dad, and so when my brother Mike and I were born, we already had an instant family....one that consisted of two teenage sisters for us!
 
During our barbecues, picnics, and parties that celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer, let's remember that in spite of our country's problems, we are free, and we owe so much to all our veterans of wars....deceased or still living.



photo taken by Becky Sept 2011 at our friends' lake house

 

I don't write a political blog, but I will say this, if you've never been to Washington, DC and seen Arlington Cemetery and/or the Vietnam Wall, you've missed out on a couple of extremely powerful sights. You will surely have chills......

 ~~~
 

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?' " ~ Eve Merriam


"Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?" -- Holly Near