A letter to this morning's LA Times today decried the use of "happy" with "Memorial Day." The writer felt that the many people who have died in the military and their loved ones over the years are probably anything but happy.
But I'm happy that we live in a country where people are willing to get up out of an easy chair and go kick the living stuffing out of our enemies.
It wasn't always called Memorial Day. Many people of a certain age remember it as Decoration Day when entire family reunions were held in cemeteries where graves were spruced up, flowers arranged and a picnic lunch was had by all.
Interestingly enough, the celebration was designed for the end of May -- when flowers all across the country were available.
May 5, 1868 - three years after the end of the American Civil War - was the first. Southern women gathered to honor their dead and decided that the Yankee graves looked so pitiful that they should tidy them up, too.
That's the kind of "happy" thought to have on Memorial Day ...
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