Memorial Day

So what is everyone's boating plans for tomorrow or are you staying away from the potential madness?

We are currently anchored off Fernandina having spent yesterday over on Cumberland Island. We may go back to Cumberland today before returning to Fernandina for dinner ashore, or head on down to the anchorage at Fort George for the night, leaving when the day boats arrive en masse.

Regardless our nation's flag will start at half mast tomorrow morning returning to full staff at noon.

Lest we forget.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond [our nation's] foam.

I post this link around every Memorial Day in the communities that I participate in.

David Sage Hays

Today, Rogers Centre, Blue Jays and Red Sox, followed by Ripley's Aquarium next door. This morning was the Antiques Market at St. Lawrence Market. Yesterday we got buy there for the Farmer's Market. Now we have plenty of fresh food items on the boat, the only problem being too many great restaurants around distracting us.

Tomorrow, not all firm, but looks like the Hockey Hall of Fame, Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario.

We have managed to avoid the holiday crowd on the water. One of three days we choose not to boat locally if we're at home.

As to the holiday, I think of all those lives torn by war. Those who have lost family, those who have fought and lost friends beside them as well as a part of themselves. Those who have returned but will always fight the memories and their families who suffer along with them. War doesn't just touch those who fight but all their families and friends.

Now I hold some anger too at ourselves as a nation, a nation that finds it easy to send our young men and women to fight our battles, finds it easy sometimes to recognize them with words, but still doesn't take care of them, doesn't help them as it should, doesn't provide them the medical care, the physical or mental health support they need and deserve when they return.

Families are destroyed. Wives don't recognize their returning husband. Children never know the man who was their father, only the one who returns if one does return.

We trained them to fight but we don't train them to live after. Even VA educational benefits are so widely abused by schools that thrive on VA Benefits but do a lousy job of education, degree and certificate factories.

Young men getting killed, young men returning wounded is no longer even news worthy as we've grown so numb to it as a society. We no longer count the days of conflict on the news, the conflicts are not even lead stories.

While honoring those who gave their lives, who fought in prior wars, is honorable, if we want to do something tangible it will be for those today who in very different ways gave their lives, or large parts of them, to fight our battles. Families that are suffering terribly and will never be the same. They need us as individuals, as a society, and as a country. As a whole, we're not there for them as we should be. No one returns unaffected. None of their families are unaffected.

As I usually do I will find a vet and buy a poppy while thinking of my father, a first generation US citizen from Germany, who voluntarily honored his country and joined the navy in WWII serving in the Pacific Theater.

BandB said:

As to the holiday, I think of all those lives torn by war. Those who have lost family, those who have fought and lost friends beside them as well as a part of themselves. Those who have returned but will always fight the memories and their families who suffer along with them. War doesn't just touch those who fight but all their families and friends.

Now I hold some anger too at ourselves as a nation, a nation that finds it easy to send our young men and women to fight our battles, finds it easy sometimes to recognize them with words, but still doesn't take care of them, doesn't help them as it should, doesn't provide them the medical care, the physical or mental health support they need and deserve when they return.

Families are destroyed. Wives don't recognize their returning husband. Children never know the man who was their father, only the one who returns if one does return.

We trained them to fight but we don't train them to live after. Even VA educational benefits are so widely abused by schools that thrive on VA Benefits but do a lousy job of education, degree and certificate factories.

Young men getting killed, young men returning wounded is no longer even news worthy as we've grown so numb to it as a society. We no longer count the days of conflict on the news, the conflicts are not even lead stories.

While honoring those who gave their lives, who fought in prior wars, is honorable, if we want to do something tangible it will be for those today who in very different ways gave their lives, or large parts of them, to fight our battles. Families that are suffering terribly and will never be the same. They need us as individuals, as a society, and as a country. As a whole, we're not there for them as we should be. No one returns unaffected. None of their families are unaffected.

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Agreed.

We are planning to take our boat out for a bit...just up and down the river (which is going to be jam packed full of boats) and then we're having a cookout u see the tree at the marina.
Hubby's got the bar on the boat fully stocked.
(And no, he won't drink until after we're back in our slip)

We're headed out in a few minutes to spend the day rafted up with friends. Then, later this afternoon we'll cruise about 10 miles upstream to have a nice dinner at a steak house to celebrate our anniversary.


Happy Anniversary to the best deck hand ever!