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Holiday

Happy Memorial Day! – 2015

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No matter where you are from, if you are proud of your nationality, don’t be ashamed to say so. I live in the United States of America. It’s a county with a lot of greatness, great good and great bad. I don’t believe my country is all that different from others considering that they all have a lot of people who want a lot of things, and there’s no way to please everyone.

I won’t pretend to be happy with everything that’s occurred in my country’s past or present, but I am still proud to be an “American”, a term that doesn’t truly define the specific nature of my nationality since there are several countries in North and South America, but that’s indicative of where I’m from. Not everything in the U.S. is black and white or makes clear sense. Sometimes that’s a very good thing and sometimes it’s not.

Today is Memorial Day, and while for some it marks the beginning of their summer, here’s a little video from the History Channel explaining why we really observe this day. I would like to believe that every country in some form or another has a Memorial Day-like celebration, because all nations need to be reminded from time to time of the past so we can all better look toward the future.

This is an updated and reposted post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Holiday

Memorial Day 2014

image from mothersdaygifts.org

No matter where you are from, if you are proud of your nationality, don’t be ashamed to say so. I live in the United States of America. It’s a county with a lot of greatness, great good and great bad. I don’t believe my country is all that different from others considering that they all have a lot of people who want a lot of things, and there’s no way to please everyone.

I won’t pretend to be happy with everything that’s occurred in my country’s past or present, but I am still proud to be an “American”, a term that doesn’t truly define the specific nature of my nationality since there are several countries in North and South America, but that’s indicative of where I’m from. Not everything in the U.S. is black and white or makes clear sense. Sometimes that’s a very good thing and sometimes it’s not.

Today is Memorial Day, and while for some it marks the beginning of their summer, here’s a little video from the History Channel explaining why we really observe this day. I would like to believe that every country in some form or another has a Memorial Day-like celebration, because all nations need to be reminded from time to time of the past so we can all better look toward the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Author Insights

The Celebratory Trifecta!

The year 2025 is a long time to wait for a missed opportunity, but what else can I do? Life and circumstances had me so busy and tired that earlier this month I missed out on truly embracing two geek holidays and one vastly underrated U.S. observance that I feel needs more attention.

Saturday, May 3, 2014 was Free Comic Book Day. While I did download a free comic that day, I didn’t have a chance to get out and mingle with my  peers and help spread the word and importance of comic books in our culture, society, and literacy.

Sunday, May 4, 2014 was May the 4th Be With You. I have no idea how this day in honor of the influences of Star Wars went over. Being sick, I slept through most of it. Don’t let me paint a wrong picture for you; this is basically a commercial ploy to increase retail sales, but I still like it.

Wikipedia

Finally, Monday, May 5, 2014 was Cinco de Mayo. Being from Texas and having a bit of Hispanic ancestry, this has always been a day of celebration for my family. This year we all had too much going on to get together for a family dinner. Sadly for most, this day is simply another opportunity to go out and over indulge on cheap alcoholic beverages (True Irish descendants can relate to this as well with the “celebration” of St. Patrick’s Day). Unfortunately, Cinco de Mayo is still not considered a U.S. national holiday, though if you ask me, without the Battle of Puebla, to which it commemorates, Texas and much of southwestern U.S. could be in the hands of the French today (but that’s a history lesson for another day).

So I guess from here, I’ll simply be waiting. I’ll be waiting for the rare opportunity to have fun times and celebrate for three days in a row and perhaps share it with the ones I love most.

This is an unofficial Author Insights post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords