Remember to put out your flag tomorrow morning.

[HopeHoops]

Whether you agree with the current political situation or the politics in any year, our veterans and currently active service members have and do serve honorably and in the faith that their service is to better our country. Whether the circumstances they are thrust into deserve that label isn't relevant. We owe them the honor of recognizing their service.

That's just my opinion.

[klook]

1. ...and read some Kurt Vonnegut

It would have been his 88th birthday.

http://www.vonnegut.com/

[Kalyke]

9. Then he shares a birthday with my dog, Snap.

:)

[Journeyman]

17. And he disliked Veterans Day - felt we'd lost something sacred when we converted Armistice Day . . .

to the generic holiday we have now.

I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is.

Breakfast of Champions (1973)

Celebrate "Armistice Day" It's a far more worthy ideal.

[klook]

21. Wonderful quote

Thanks for the reminder. KV is my hero.

[Fearless]

34. +1

[Ernesto]

2. I don't own a flag....nt

[HopeHoops]

3. Last I checked, the ones at K-Mart and Agway were US Made.

[Monique1]

5. I have my flag at my side

a US disabled vietnam era vet. That is all I need.

[HopeHoops]

8. Thank you for your service. That sounds like empty words, but not coming from me.

:patriot:

[Obamanaut]

39. The last time I saw a display of flags for sale at WalMart, they too

were made by a company in the US.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. In addition . . .

. . . reading aloud (even if there is no one there to listen) Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" is always a good way to remember the Armistice, for which this day originally was named.

My father, a World War II veteran, always told me "Son, this isn't 'Veterans' Day.' This is 'Armistice Day,' and we owe a duty to remember the First World War as much or more than we remember any other.

Although I don't think of myself as being "that" old, I actually had the honor, as a boy, of getting to know men who had actually served in the U.S. military as part of the AEF that went to Europe. Because they are all gone now, we do not fully comprehend what that first, great mechanized onslaught of slaughter did to a generation of people who had NO idea the world could so thoroughly and mechanically brutalize itself.

To this day, we reap what the monsters began sowing in August 1914.


DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

[HopeHoops]

6. Thank you.

If my daughter doesn't take the sax to school tomorrow, I'll do my noon-time "National Anthem" for the flag. I do it on the 4th of July and Veterans' Day.

[Monique1]

12. The flag is a symbol

but doing something for a vet tomorrow is what counts. The flag says what? What does it mean when a car has our flag on it? What does it mean when you do something for a vet?

I rather do something for a vet or vets than to put out the flag.

Do something for the vets tomorrow -- visit a vet hospital, donate to the vets who want to live on their own, give a vet a meal tomorrow who are living on their own and hardly making it. Take time to find where there are homeless vets. If you can't afford anything, give a vet a thank you card or a special note.

We do have a place in Phoenix who take donations to help vets living on their own - furniture, kitchen utensils, pots and pans, Tv's whatever, donate to them.

[Philly219]

14. Why can't you do both?

I agree we should help vets, by visiting, donating, make a meal. But, its also a sign of respect to fly the flag on veteran's day. I fly it, hoping that any vets who drive by my residence can see how much I appreciate their service by displaying the flag of the country they defended.

[Monique1]

16. actually, I don't have a flag but I like to do things

silently. That is perogative.

[tigereye]

7. I don't have a large flag, but your sentiment is a good one.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. I agree, my dear HopeHoops...

My flag will fly proudly tomorrow...

My dad served during WWII, and my brother in VietNam...

I hope my grandsons won't have to fight in any war anywhere...

My youngest grandson will also be three years old tomorrow...

[TwilightGardener]

11. Will do--nice reminder.

[jwirr]

13. Just moved into a new apartment and need to put that on my to buy list. nt

[BeFree]

15. Put out my flag?

My flag is not burning. <grin>

I would never burn my flag. But I would never tell anyone they can't.

It's just a flag. Rather than flag my flag, I might see a vet and thanks them up close and personally. Ya think they'd like that?

[jdlh8894]

18. How will you know if they are a Vet? ESP?

[Monique1]

19. Veterans Day will be

completed within my own heart without a show and the way I want to celebrate. This is still America right? at least for today.

I drove through a veterans hospital grounds in Maryland a few years ago - that was horrible. The exterior was horrible just wondering what the interior was like. An example, the places where vets family lived - broken windows, shoddy outside - I took pictures before I left the area but the air port security took my camera.

[BeFree]

20. I visit a Vet hospital sometimes

It is a sad place, but full of hope.

Funny, tho, at the elevators you see healthy people cutting off and butting in front of obviously disabled patients. <mad>

Ya know, no one wants to go to a hospital. Hospitals are where most people go to die.
And we don't do enough for our Vets. The private hospitals are much nicer places.
It's as if we treat out Vets as second class citizens.

Were it up to me, there would be no Vet hospitals. Were it up to me a Vet could go anywhere they needed to go and it would be paid. Kinda like what I wish for everyone.

[Monique1]

23. I called the vet hospital here today

What can I do? I just don't want to put a flag out - I want to be active to help the vets or a vet. He said he was never approached with that question. Is there someplace where I can help a homeless vet, he could not answer, he didn't know. So, if I brought a basket of fruit to the hospital tomorrow - would that be okay? No, no one would be here to accept it plus they do not accept food. So, tell me how to help a vet besides giving money - again, I don't know. So, I finally said what if I bring a box of soap, deodorant, toothpaste etc would that be acceptable? He said that would be great but not tomorrow so I guess I'll give it on another day. It is tough helping the vets. I sure would like to find a homeless vet and take him/her to lunch or take them some food but guess not.

I'll be back, I was just sent some emails to do some searching. Sorry, if I donate money - I don't trust they will get it.

[pinboy3niner]

28. Your call was handled poorly by whoever answered

He should have transferred you to the Veterans Affairs Volunteer Service office. Here's a link with more info:

http://www.volunteer.va.gov/

[MineralMan]

22. I am a veteran. My flag flies on all national holidays.

I chose to serve this country in the military. My father was a WWII B-17 pilot. My grandfather was in the army during the Spanish-American war. I honor all those who have served. Others may make other choices. It's a free country, after all.

My flag will fly.

[jdlh8894]

24. No Mineral Man--

OUR FLAG WILL FLY!!!!!

[MineralMan]

26. Good point. The one I fly is one that belongs to me, though.

What it represents belongs to all of us.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. "Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains ....

"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." - Arundhati Roy

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. "Arundhati Roy is an a-hole" - Dreamer Tatum nt

[tkmorris]

31. At least we know where your allegiances lie

Not that the matter was in doubt.

[Dreamer Tatum]

33. I pledge allegiance to the flag, my friend. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. Don't like Arundhati Roy? You're gonna love this guy.

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Albert Einstein

[Dreamer Tatum]

37. What the country f*** does that have to do with the flag?

Christ. People dragging Einstein out of their asses is almost as tedious as invoking Nazis.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

43. Heh.

I see TyL's posts had the intended effect.

Yes. Einstein said that.

[Dreamer Tatum]

44. He said thousands of other things, equally unrelated to the flag.

Want to post those?

[GusBob]

30. The flag that shrouded my grandfathers coffin

is now encased in a glass for my shrink wrapped brain to remember......

When my grandad left his tiny rural town with his other small town brother farmers and laborers to join the Rainbow Division, the entire county near about showed up to send them off, August 1917. The mother of one his comrades dragged Granddad aside and begged him to look after her son, Artie S. He promised he would.

Later in Sept 1918 in the battle of St Miheil, word came down the line that Artie did not return during the days action. GF was a 1st Lt in a machine gun company. He waited until nightfall, and then acting on no orders other than that of a soldier's mother he went over the top alone into no mans land to search for his lost neighbor. Artie was not where his squadmates said they last saw him, but undeterred, he searched the front line in their sector until with one hour 'til dawn he found Artie wounded in a foxhole and he carried him back to the US trenches and safety.

I met Artie at my Grandads funeral, that of the flag drapped coffin. Unable to speak overcome by emotion he hugged each and everyone of Grandads children and grandchildren. I'll never forget it

Here's my quote
Cowards hide behind words. Heroes back up their words with brave action

[jdlh8894]

32. Cowards hide behind words. Heroes back up their words with brave action

No better words have ever been spoken.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. Which Arundhati Roy has done many times.

[jdlh8894]

38. What? Hide behind words? n/t

[alarimer]

41. I agree.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Meaningless bit of cloth.
Just more jingoism.

[jdlh8894]

45. Meaningless bit of cloth???????

I may get banned,but How F***k dare you resort to that reasoning (or whateverer it might be called)I'm to pissed to say what I want to.Go through Hell- then call us back!

[Dappleganger]

27. I'm going to go thank our neighbor for his service.

He and his wife are two of the very very few staunch democrats in this area--we've kept each other going the past week, that's for sure. His wife is german and they love to talk about how bad we have it here (they would move but the grandkids all live here, I would never blame anyone for not wanting to leave those precious ones).

[alarimer]

40. No

I don't believe in any flag-waving bullshit.

I also don't believe in "support the troops" bullshit. It's meaningless feel-good nonsense; it doesn't actually mean anything.

[bobbolink]

42. Here's the result of our "support the troops"

[Ernesto]

46. pretty much................nt