Okay, you asked for it. It only ranks above "Jury of your peers" on my pet-peeve-scale.
Several years ago, we were coming back from the American Legion Hall on Memorial Day. I was in AL uniform having served in the firing detail at the local cemetery. We had gone into the local Stop&Rob for one thing or another (which put me in bad mood to begin with) and at the check-out the Miss TeenAmerica wannabe at the register wished me a "Happy Memorial Day"
And I unloaded on her, I didn't yell or raise my voice but said it through tightly clenched teeth:
There is one NOT g-ddamned thing *expletive deleted* "Happy" about Memorial Day. Everyone in this country that isn't in uniform honoring our war dead had damn well be better dressed in black mourning clothes. I just got back from [ local town] cemetery where we paid our respects and begged G-d to care for those 327 mostly 18-20 year old kids who died in mud filled trenches, freezing European forests, crappy little dots of islands, hot shitty jungles or some G-d forsaken desert. They died horrible, agonizing deaths all so you could go to the mall and shop without having worry about whether you were in the whites or blacks section, to show your papieren, bitte or do it in *expletive deleted* Japanese to buy worthless *expletive deleted* rancid Russian bread and worry about being shot as a spy on your way home. Those people gave you their everything for what you have today. Look around and ask if you want for anything, because I know those poor bastards would feel cheated if you did. If you saw Saving Private Ryan, then you probably missed the single most important *expletive deleted* lesson of that entire movie. Remember that cemetery ? There are about 2 dozen in Europe, there's another big one on Oahu in Hawaii. There are quite few here in the US from the Revoluntionary War on, and every American's knees should become weak and tears should flow when they visit those places on Memorial Day. Because there's no *expletive deleted* way any of us have "Earned This".
[/RANT]
