I was going to rant about President Obama sending Joe Biden to Arlington for Memorial Day, while he spends a well deserved weekend in Chicago.
When you care enough to send the very best you send your second banana in your stead.
But then Richard Fernandez did it for me and he did in a very non-ranty way and it is an actual pleasure to read.
So go read ‘Memory and Survival’.
Besides - he’s going to lay a wreath at Lincoln Cemetry. And hey, that’s okay. One national cemetary is just like another. Just a buncha dead guys in a stone garden. The headstones look the same. Hey lay a wreath here, lay one there, it’s all the same. Just some ceremonial foolishness – hand salute, lay the wreath, hand on the heart, moment of silence then back in the limo. Who gives a fuck, really.
Tell you what: just to keep the Commander In Chief from being bothered with trotting out to Arlington or Lincoln or where-the-fuck ever … next year we can lean a headstone against the fence in his backyard. Monday when he feels up to it he can mosey outside, toss on a wreath and call it a day.
Cross posted to Space For Commerce.
Actually, the meme that I saw developing at a couple of other milblog sites over the last week or so is – really, do we want him at Arlington at all, going through the motions and throwing a wreath in the general direction of the Memorial? At least Joe “The Hairplugs” Biden has kin on active duty…
Yeah, I know – kinda bitter and resentful of me. But the mantra of “respecting the office and not the person holding it” is really wearing pretty thin, when it comes to the “O” guy.
Too many of my fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen died to protect this country from Communism. Obama is the last person I want showing up to honor them.
One national cemetary is just like another. No, each one is different and unique, just like the soldiers buried there. But the sacrifice that they represent IS universal and is equally deserving of our gratitude, just like the soldiers buried there.
No, each one is different and unique,
Well, of course, Jim. This was exaggeration in service of a hissy fit.
But the mantra of “respecting the office and not the person holding it” is really wearing pretty thin, when it comes to the “O” guy.
I hear what you mean, Julia.
But just like a wishy-washy CO, or an overseas tour unaccompanied .. this too will pass.
This too will pass? Well, so will a bowel movement. Press the flusher and there it goes…