Service

BP would be too easy pickins. I will pick on them, surely. I am wondering where the "Drill Baby Drill" chorus is now.

But not today.

One of my high school classmates posted a status mentioning his visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington - the Wall. I have never been to the Wall. The Wall is one of those places where those who gave all are memorialized in a settng in which you can feel the ghosts. Hawaii has more than one such - The USS Arizona monument, the Punchbowl.

I have visited one such place. It was a June Wednesday morning when I stopped at the Gettysburg battlefield. I don't even know if they have a visitors' center there - I stopped on a road that runs by one edge of the field. I saw no monuments, no memorials. Just - the field. Even so, the ghosts were there.

I live near another such: the National Cemetery on the Rock Island Arsenal.

"Happy Memorial Day" is a horribly inappropriate greeting. Maybe, "Thankful Memorial Day." It can't be happy when we're reminded that freedom isn't free. It has cost us dearly.

So, from me to those ghosts: I've always been OK with words. I don't have any words that even come close to saying "Thank you" strongly enough.

But, as inadequate as it is: Thank you. And may God be good to you.