Today America celebrates Memorial Day–a day to remember fallen U.S. Service Members. Many Americans will observe the holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials to the dead. These memorials may take the form of a sculpture, a statue, a plaque, or even an entire park.
Who will memorialize this memorial?
Just wondering, but is there any interest in creating a Memorial Memorial Day, when we could memorialize and remember memorials? These could be old memorials that have fallen into disrepair or just memorials for events and wars nobody remembers anymore. Or sometimes a memorial isn’t very popular–like maybe it was just a rusty plaque commemorating some local boys who accidentally signed up to serve in the enemy’s army and also all their names are misspelled–and this plaque is replaced with a shinier plaque which spells the names correctly, and everybody is thrilled with the new plaque, but I still think we have an ethical obligation to remember and memorialize that first plaque and it’s service as a memorial.
The holiday could also encompass a broader concept which includes all memorials or even the human concept of memorializing. Whatever the form of the holiday, I would prefer special attention be paid to forgotten memorials because it makes me feel tremendous melancholy whenever I visit an old battlefield and can’t find the memorial because it toppled over after years of neglect. Or because it’s become obscured by vegetation. Or because it’s not really an old battlefield at all but rather the ocean because somebody gave me bad directions. Or maybe they gave me good directions but I wasn’t listening because I was thinking about my idea for Memorial Memorial Day.
The day could be spent visiting these forgotten memorials and maybe volunteers could help clean and repair them. But be careful volunteers, some of these memorials are quite old and could topple over at any time. If any volunteers are crushed while repairing memorials on Memorial Memorial Day, might I suggest a Memorial to the Memorial Memorial Day Memorializers?
Let’s give the holiday a try. And if Memorial Memorial Day doesn’t catch on and is eventually discontinued, might I suggest we remember this failed holiday with a Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Day?
Memorial to the Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Day Massacre?
And if Congress isn’t willing to consider my idea for Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Day, perhaps I’ll run for the Senate and filibuster until they’re willing to vote on my holiday. And maybe the whole country will come to a standstill as government business grinds to a halt, and maybe a foreign power will attack America to force us to go back to work so we can repay all the money we owe everybody, and if some U.S. Service Members are killed in the battle, might I suggest we memorialize their sacrifice with the Memorial to the Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Day Massacre and a holiday called Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Day Massacre Memorial Day?
Whatever shape the holiday ends up taking, might there eventually be a memorial memorializing the creator of Memorial Memorial Day? Seems like a fitting way to memorialize him, doesn’t it?
carldagostino
May 30, 2011
Miami is so overwhelmingly foreign born or first generation that these venerable traditions have no meaning at all and I must watch the immigrant and illegals bankrupt the hospitals and social services and school budgets have no appreciation or awareness of what these days mean. The parades are gone. Some municipalities may do a little 12 minute thing with the cops, a bugle and rifle salute but that is about it. If you live in Miami you don’t live in America.
lifeintheboomerlane
May 30, 2011
You are completely out of your mind. I like that.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I’m glad you approve.
moraloutrage
May 31, 2012
Speaking of being out of one’s mind, unfortunately Memorial Day now also reminds us of times when we had more freedom.
For example, of times before the federal government could write any law, regulate any behavior and tax any event, no matter what the Constitution authorized. Before Congress allowed the military to lock up whatever Americans the president ordered the troops to arrest, without charges filed or lawyers present or a judge presiding.
What if, on Memorial Day, when we think of those who died for our freedom, we recognize that the freedom they died for is dying?
http://moraloutrage.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/memorial-day-what-ifs/
Meet the Buttrams
May 30, 2011
Even though I read this in my mind and not out loud like usual, I kept tripping over the word “memorial”. Weird, right.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I hope you’re not implying I used the word memorial too much.
Meet the Buttrams
May 31, 2011
I was hoping you’d ask me what accent I read your posts aloud in, so I could say, “Cockney, yeh daft bloke” on your own blog. You have failed me.
Mark Kaplowitz
May 30, 2011
If there’s another 3-day weekend involved, I’m all aboard. Nice work!
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I’m actually thinking the holiday would take place on a Saturday and you would have to work on that Saturday. This will require everyone to take the day off in order to show true Memorial Memorial Day spirit.
georgettesullins
May 30, 2011
This makes me think of the scores…no, hundreds… of historical markers that are hard to pass up.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
There certainly seem to be a lot of historical markers. Maybe we just need one giant marker reminding us to remember history.
Sidney
May 30, 2011
Great. Memorial no longer sounds like a word to me. “Memorial” “Memorial”
Nope. It’s meaningless.
Sidney
May 30, 2011
Could you please do that for me with “shiznet?”
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
By the time I was done with it “memorial” sounded funny to me as well. I was certain I was misspelling it because it sounded so odd.
gmomj
May 30, 2011
It’s nice to be able to exercise your right to free speech.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
Let’s make a memorial for that.
Invisible Mikey
May 30, 2011
Though I think the best way to honor the dead is to stop sending more people to join them, I still found this funny.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I guess that is a better way to honor them than a memorial.
nancyfrancis
May 30, 2011
Up here in the Great White North we get a day off for Queen Victoria’s birthday. Last I checked she died in the early 1900’s – these days we use the day to celebrate the current Monarch’s birthday, which would be Queen Elizabeth. Problem is her birthday is in April, and our holiday is in May. I thought this was ridiculous until I found out that in England they celebrate her birthday in June. Better BBQ weather I guess.
Any excuse for a holiday right?
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
Let’s consider making every day a holiday except the weekends. I need the weekends to relax after all that holidaying.
Lenore Diane
May 30, 2011
“Or maybe they gave me good directions but I wasn’t listening because I was thinking about my idea for Memorial Memorial Day.” That line made me laugh out loud. Funny!
As Georgette Sullins mentioned – the historical markers came to my mind when I read your memorial for memorializing memorials. Those markers need some serious memorializing.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
If we don’t memorialize those historical markers, who will?
Bearman
May 30, 2011
Put a plaque next to a plaque saying this plaque (with arrow pointing to the other) memorialized those who lost their lives in WWII. For an up to date list and to save costs we have moved the names to our website.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
And will me memorialize that website once the names are moved to a better website?
modestypress
May 31, 2011
Not very original, I admit, but…
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
Penny
May 31, 2011
Very good post-and a great thought ! Your creative thoughts are amazing !! does this art come naturally or do you stay up all night researching the thought? 🙂
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
Mostly I just space out and daydream these ideas while people are giving me directions.
thebabelblog
May 31, 2011
lol @Bearman, that would be funny to see.
spilledinkguy
May 31, 2011
Hahaha… will there be a competition to design the Good Greatsby Memorial Memorial Day Memorial Monument or did you already have something specific in mind?! 🙂
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
A replica of the Lincoln Memorial would be nice, but maybe a bit bigger.
bridgesburning
May 31, 2011
Ah yes a memorial got the creator of…and it should have a message…the humblest man ever…!! 🙂 🙂
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I’m glad I was successful in conveying my humility.
Margie
May 31, 2011
Memorials are much better cared for in Europe. When you live in a country that still has bullet holes in the buildings, and farmers are still finding unexploded bombs in their fields, there is a tendency to remember and respect the people who gave their lives so that you could live.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
I would certainly find it hard to forget if there were bombs in my yard as a reminder.
Laura
May 31, 2011
If Memorial Memorial Day doesn’t catch on, I’m sure that all the celebrations that memorialize it will feature readings from this post. This post is the Gettysburg Address of Memorial Memorial Day.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
This post is certainly the leading candidate so far.
Rachael Black
May 31, 2011
Here’s some background. Courtesy of Wiki: the site that sucks you in with a question involving string theory and doesn’t let loose until you’ve found Weird Al’s birthday. At which point it’s 3:00 am and you’re ready for a snack. Then you Wiki snack….
In any case: Memorial day was started by freed black slaves in 1865 and known as Decoration Day. It was begun to memorialize the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War.
I can remember my grandmother referring to this holiday as Decoration Day.
So, the perfect memorial to memorialize Memorial Day should be a Huge marble computer, inscribed with the Wikipedia header. And perhaps an inscription at the bottom mentioning soldiers or something.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
Great suggestion. We need to memorialize our sources of memorial information.
Binky
May 31, 2011
If all memorials were memorialized with memorial plaques, then this would create an infinite memorial conundrum, since each of those memorials memorializing memorial plaques would in turn have to be memorialized themselves. And so it would go ad infinitum, until the world consisted of nothing but memorial plaques.
Laura
May 31, 2011
Don’t worry — that’s what the the Memorial to All Memorials, Past, Present, and Future, Including This One is designed to prevent.
On a darker note, some annoying mathematician will probably create the Memorial to All Memorials that Don’t Memorialize Themselves, causing Memorial Memorial Day celebrations everywhere to degenerate into arguments over whether it’s actually a memorial and whether it memorializes itself.
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
You’re right. I worry I’ve just created a philosophical question that will distract scientists from far weightier concerns.
paigekellerman
May 31, 2011
A Memorial Memorial Day would work if you scheduled it the Thursday after your Thanksgiving on Wednesday. That way, you could justify a five day, holiday weekend….
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
With your encouragement I’m going to keep thinking of new holidays.
monicastangledweb
May 31, 2011
Happy memorializing Memorial Day! Did you do anything special for Memorial Day Eve?
The Good Greatsby
May 31, 2011
If you count thinking of the idea for this post as special, then yes.
Ian the Zen Assassin
May 31, 2011
You should really memorialize your memorial post about memoralizing Memorial Day memorials. 😉
writerdood
May 31, 2011
I had to ask my wife if Memorial day was the day when honored veterans, or if that was Veterans day. She told me that Memorial day was for everyone who was dead, not just dead veterans. So, really, it’s a generic dead day.
The Good Greatsby
June 1, 2011
I’ve also been a bit confused by Memorial Day when we think of deceased veterans and then Veterans Day which is for deceased and living veterans.
thoughtsappear
June 1, 2011
Run for Senate! I’ll vote for you!
writerwoman61
June 3, 2011
Oh dear…I think my migraine is coming back…way too many logistics in this post…
Wendy
the master
June 6, 2011
The problem in my neck of the woods is that a lot of really old memorials take the form of hills, and it’s difficult to distinguish between a memorial shaped like a hill and an actual hill. There probably is a way, but I’m not gonna bother to learn what it is.