The morning of Memorial Day I begged off work for a while to go up (or is it down?) street to see the parade, which drew a crowd O'en and I are not used to seeing on our daily walks through the village.
Interesting that a day of mourning the dead can be so joyful too, but when you think of it, it's not so odd: We are asked to remember our slain veterans so that they will not have died in vain, and there, right in front of you, is the reason why — the troops of Little Leaguers, boys and girls, marching along and waving as the high school band plays the upbeat "You're a Grand Old Flag."
You sense that connection between those who have gone before and those coming after intimately in a small town parade such as ours, in which older marchers hold up placards with the names of the fallen so that we'll know their names and remember them and thank them. Democracy is worth defending, as President Biden said, worth fighting for given the freedoms it accords.
Memorial Day was a day for people to reflect — for even wondering perhaps why wars continue to be waged — which was why the internet bellowings of our former president, who, projecting as usual, described his opponents as "human scum working so hard to destroy our once great country," were so jarring.
It's ironic too that an "America First" isolationist such as he would see fit to speak solemnly of this country's war dead on a day in which homage is paid to, among the many others who have died in this country's wars, "the greatest generation," the one that saved the world from fascism.
Or is it ironic? Could we be saluting Der Furor soon, or be hailing Sleazar Disgustus?