Got some spare cash?

Move America Forward will take it to send care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've already donated myself--wouldn't it be a riot if my brother or one of his squad* got my box? :)

I couldn't care less about the (unconfirmed as of this writing, but burning up Twitter) death of Michael Jackson, but the Gold Star Mothers and other essays at Big Hollywood today have me bawling like a baby. Totally the opposite of 95% of American society. I need to stop thinking about that or I'll never settle down enough to sleep tonight.

* They're in Ft. Stewart, GA, and will be shipping out to Iraq "any day now." I'll let y'all know when I find out.

Memorial Day

Photo taken last month at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Mansfield, PA.

Waterloo, NY is "sanctioned by the U.S. Government" as the birthplace of Memorial Day--apparently the Confederate ladies decorating graves during the war don't count 'cause they lost--and to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our country, they're having a pizza-eating contest. (The solemn commemoration of the dead is on Decoration Day, May 30, which starts with a church service and looks kind of interesting, actually).

Memorial Day makes me miss my grandmother (the one with five brothers in the Pacific in WWII), who hauled us all out to the cemetery for the VFW ceremony every spring and bought paper poppies everytime she went to the grocery store. Which I realize is missing the whole point, but I think underscores the effects of family on people's values--most people my age and younger (at least, the ones I come in regular contact with) couldn't care less about American history or honoring veterans.

Starting tomorrow all the battlefields and other historic sites around New York are open for the summer; my inner American history nerd is like a kid with a $10 bill waiting for the candy store to open ("OK, I can get six of these and one of those...or five of those and three of these...").

Happy Armed Forces Day!

Cox and Forkum have a history and links to good stuff (and a great cartoon, as usual!). I dumped some of my excess cash off at Project Valour-IT.

My grandfather, father, both brothers-in-law (one currently in the USAF and frequently deployed to Qatar), my mother's three brothers, a great-aunt, and at least six great-uncles have all served at least one enlistment since 1941--Army, Navy, and Air Force (Grandpa was Army Air Corps). AND my little brother just graduated from BCT and is Texas undergoing further training for the National Guard. I'm intensely proud of him.

Someday I will blog some family stories, especially from WWII.

Not hard to figure out why I grew up to be so fiercely pro-America, is it?