Ah, Memorial Day. The opening of summer. Time for a three-day weekend, grilling, beer, and Memorial Day sales.

Except that’s all crap.  Even those who thank veterans for their service on Memorial Day don’t get it. It’s not about us.

It’s about the brothers we’ve put in the ground.

Memorial Day started as Decoration Day. Declared to be May 30 it was a day to decorate the graves of Civil War dead. It started as a local observance and steadily spread.  By the end of World War I, it had become a day for honoring the fallen from all American Wars. In 1971, it was declared a national holiday.