What does Memorial Day mean to you?

As a veteran, it's a bit of a slap in the face to get a holiday in lieu of actual veteran benefits I can actually use as a determined, wide-awake civilian.

Perhaps for some it's an opportunity to be reminded of what our military represents for some people, a sacrifice of finite human capital for an arduous task of keeping multinational corporations access to foreign resources relatively safe from nationalization which severely limits the pure profitability of most exploitable resources that are not human labor dependent, such as unmanned 24/7 oil pumps on foreign soil.

On a personal basis, it's a bit of a nuisance trying to travel during this weekend with all the tourists clogging the roads and freeways all headed towards our local beaches.

The honoring of "war dead" is a tired and pretentious cliche, it's no different than being addicted to obsessing over funerals or other burying the dead rituals.

The dead are dead and idiotic gesticulating over certain dead people does not help the living, it just reinforces a mindset that people killing and murdering for a depraved ideal, do not deserve our respect, they deserve our scorn and little else.

Memorial day is like xmas for people obsessed with worshiping people who killed or murdered other people for the sole purpose of enriching corporations who get rich from internecine, humanity is not improved one iota from the affects of war or the glorifying aspects of worshiping those who have died while engaging in warfare.

In America, war is a religion, this explains why I was forced to endure so much religious propaganda while I was on active duty and why most branches of the military have paid ratings that specialize in promoting an official military religious message and it matters not if you happen to practice a different religion or no religion whatsoever, the military is a religious institution.

Memorial day is a religious holiday, instead of honoring those who embrace life, this holiday honors those who have murdered or killed other people and died during the process, this is a negative stain on humanity as a whole, but I doubt my opinion will have any affect on the basis for this religious ritual remembrance day.

People who still believe in the fantasy that our military protects "our freedom" are in love with a fantasy illusion of freedom.

It's become necessary to constantly "remind" people using the same pathetic narrative of why in order to feel safe, we must spend nearly a trillion dollars a year on the war toy industry and to a lesser extent, actual veteran pay/benefit costs.

Without constant distractions, eventually people will start to wonder why our military has become like an out of control national religion so sacrosanct, that nobody dares declare infrastructure repair a higher priority than our current over-hyped national security apparatus narrative which of course, includes the military.

In the 50's and 60's the public address announcer at the Indianapolis 500 asked those in attendance to bow their heads and give thanks to God for the brave men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in order for us to have the freedom to enjoy our recreational activities.

I have never forgotten this.In their memory I fly the red,white and blue on my car and play my patriotic cd's as I travel to and from my in town destination.

I find this day to be rather somber.

Vietnam Veteran....5th Special Forces Airborne (CCC) Kontum, Vietnam...23 from my small hometown killed in action!

No school + good sales AND honor for the war vets military

It means that we should, thank the veterans who gave there lives in the war.

a chance to honor our military vets and the vets who gave the ultimate sacrifice(their lives)for our freedoms.