For a true american, Memorial Day is supposed to be day when we honor those who have fallen in battle defending our way of life. For me, this was the day that the garbage man didn't empty the dumpster at Cafe Zenon. When I arrived to open Zenon's dishpit at 6:30 this morrning, the dumpster was mostly full. This presented a major problem as Cafe Zenon generates about two thirds of a dumpsters worth of garbage everyday. But we couldn't call the garbage man because he was busy honoring our fallen heros; or if you translate that into modern american: Barbecuing at home with the family while drinking a lot of coors light.
I couldn't help but feel a little bitter at the whole situation. I feel like this holiday is being abused; and yet at the same time I don't support most, if not all, of the conflicts where our soldiers have fallen. I find myself conflicted.
I also got my shit rocked because everyone who wasn't part of the service industry got the day off, and the dish schedule isn't set up to handle that kind of load on a monday. Needless to say, no adjustments were made to the regular schedule.
I was glad when my shift was done.
Because sometimes the bass doesn't go from five to one.
5 comments:
This is the possibly most Un-American thing I have read. Maybe the holiday has changed, socially, into another day off. But that does not mean the true meaning of the day no longer exists. While you are here being bitter about having to do extra work due MEMORIAL DAY, our troops are dying in Iraq.
Shame on you. America needs patriotism as opposed to cynism. And people like you are the bastards who are corroding the foundation of American philosophy, and relying on the 'system' to bail you out for all your liberal idiocracy.
This is awesome! I hope the anonymous poster keeps checking this site because i would love to diologue with him/her
I think you partially miss my point. What I am complaining about is that the meaning of this day has been lost.
I work in a restaurant, and yet on memorial day I have to work because other people have the day off and want to spend money. If our nation really wanted this day to be a day of reflection and recognition, then nobody would work. We would all spend the day in quite reflection. But that isn't how our society works.
So as you can see my whole post was meant to point out the loss of meaning for what could be a very important time of national reflection. Not me being bitter at doing extra work but being bitter at a day miss-used.
Oh, and calling me a bastard was kind of mean and it hurt my feelings.
Willamette University has one of the few black college presidents in the country--a really awesome guy named Lee Pelton. He believed that if classes were cancelled for MLK day, that it would become just another holiday, like memorial day, where people generally forget about what it means and just enjoy the day off. For that reason, we had class that day.
I think that point is similar to the one Moses is making here and that they anonymous poster sort of misses.
Oh, and not for nothing, but calling someone "Un-American" and "a bastard" won't really get you very far in my book and is a pretty terrible way to start a dialogue.
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