Tone

Memorial Day for me has long been a somber affair.

Once I learned the why of it.

There's a part of me that resents the sales and it marking the first weekend of summer vacations.

Resentment that's tempered with knowing that those small exercises of personal liberty are precisely why many of us served and are genuinely glad that people CAN be ignorant of what Memorial Day is.

Like many vets, I've a list of names of my fellows who're gone.  Some older, some younger.  Some died doing their duty, others just finally lost the race we will all lose someday.

That we remember them is what's important.

That we don't worry about the people who've gone and never served on this one day is also important.