600 – Why and what we celebrate: Tom talks Memorial Day Facts

Episode 600 – Memorial Day
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:09] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 600? Episode 600 of Screw the Commute podcast? Can you believe it? Well, today we're going to talk about Memorial Day facts, and this will include a recitation of the famous traditional poem in Flanders Fields. But first, a message to those that run this country down. I have two questions for you. Why are you here? If it's so bad here, why don't you just go to wherever you think would be better? That's a simple question, right? And to. What do you think would happen to you if you ran your mouth like you do here in many different countries in the world? Well, but let me tell you, you'd most likely get arrested within a few hours or even minutes. And if you were lucky, you'd only be sent to a work camp or a prison to never be seen again. Maybe we'd be lucky, too, if that happened. Okay. Now. I'm sorry. Well, sorry. Not sorry. I won't miss you. If you were a little bit more unlucky, you'd get beheaded and your head would be placed on a stick to deter others from running their mouths like you did. So when you want to cause trouble and burn flags, maybe you should thank those people we are thinking about today who gave their lives so you could run your shit spewing mouth.

[00:02:07] How about that? All right. I got that little rant out of the way. So now let's switch to a good dose of capitalism, which again, we can live with capitalism and the wonderful lives we live because of those brave people. So we've got a giant 60% off Memorial Day sale, which is also celebrating this, our 600th episode. All right. Can you imagine sitting in front of this microphone 600 times? Well, I've lived it. And I want to thank our many listeners for keeping me going, as I'm totally dedicated to bringing you great and entertaining information. And here's a good example of it. Like, did you hear about the terrible accident on the interstate? Yeah. It was terrible. A semi-truck hauling eggs crashed. Well, no one was hurt, but state troopers are scrambling. To get it cleaned up. Well, folks, where are you going to get that high level of entertainment value? Right here on Screw the commute. Anyway, the sale is going to be a screwthecommute.com/mday and it's good through Wednesday.

[00:03:28] All right. Let's get to Memorial Day stuff. Well, Memorial Day is a day where we remember and honor the men and women who have given their lives to serve their country in wars around the world.

[00:03:41] Another fact. It's also the unofficial start of summer. And don't forget another fact. It's the weekend for the Indianapolis 500, which almost didn't happen. I'll tell you about that later. So let's talk about that great Decoration Day. Well, that that's what Memorial Day used to be called, because the graves of some 600,000 soldiers from the Civil War would be adorned or decorated with flowers. I remember this when I was a kid, and you'll see when it kind of switched to Memorial Day. But it was Decoration Day when I was a kid. Now, here's a little bit of history, three years after the end of the Civil War. It was May 5th, 1868. A guy named John Logan, he was a veteran of the war, the Civil War and head of the Union Veterans Organization called the Grand Army of the Republic. So he wanted to establish Decoration Day to be recognized on May 30th. And guess why? May 30th was picked. Pretty cool. This is according to the Veterans Administration. They say that May 30th was picked because flowers would be in full bloom then. So people from the North and the south put flowers on the graves of fallen heroes and they were in full bloom. So it was prettier. Now, the first official, official National Decoration Day ceremony was on May 30th, 1868, and it was at Arlington National Cemetery.

[00:05:26] And General Ulysses S Grant was the presiding person at the ceremony. That's according to the Veterans Administration. Okay, now let's switch gears. Wait a minute. What about us? Now, did you know that Decoration Day until World War One, only recognized fallen soldiers of the Civil War? So there was other people, the one that chime in. Well, what about the Revolutionary War? What about World War Two and the Vietnam War? So so it's expanded to all of those. And in Decoration Day spun off to other days and traditions like Veterans Day. And it was originally called Armistice Day. Maybe I'll do a you know, we do a whole Veterans Month here in September highlighting veteran entrepreneurs and also the tradition of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So basically, it morphed into remembering all the soldiers who died during the country's wars at home and abroad. And then it was also in the years after World War One that the tradition of wearing a red poppy and reading. The poem in Flanders Fields developed. So let me give you a little history on that poem. John McCrae was a Canadian medical officer. He's the author of In Flanders Field Fields. And he was stationed in Belgium in an area called Flanders. And his friend was killed and buried in a field and the wild poppies started growing around the grave.

[00:07:10] Now there's a whole bunch of more interesting things about how that poem originated. So I'm going to leave you a link to the Veterans Organization in Canada that gives the all the details of that. But I'd like to read or recite the poem to you. It's you know, it's a little bit off. I'm not known for being serious, to tell you the truth, but there are certain things that I do not cross the line. And this is this is one where it just infuriates me with these people that don't respect all these people that gave their lives and and others and the veterans that are still giving their lives in service to our country. So this is in Flanders Fields by John McCrae. In Flanders fields. The poppies blow between the crosses. Row on row that mark our place. And in the sky, the larks still bravely singing Fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived felt dawn saw sunset glow loved and were loved. And now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe to you from failing hands. We throw the torch be yours to hold it high. If he break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.

[00:08:42] Though poppies grow in Flanders fields. Well, I'm sure I didn't give that the the recitation that deserves, but hopefully you'll get the idea and look it up and listen to other recitations by people more. Let's say, linguistically capable than I. All right, let's switch gears. By the 1960s, the term Decoration Day had given way to Memorial Day. But you know what? It wasn't recognized as a federal holiday until 1968. And that changed with the passing of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. You know, a lot of things are on Monday. Now, the the act established several American holidays that fall on certain Mondays throughout the year, like Washington's birthday, which is kind of president's day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day. And then Veterans Day for some reason got changed from its original date was November 11th, but it got changed for some reason. I don't know why. And in the 1980s, Martin Luther King Jr Day would be added to the list of holidays that fall on Mondays. All right now, folks. Why was that? Uniform Monday holiday act passed. Well, let's go back to capitalism. The reason the act and this is according to Time magazine, which was made, was to help boost the economy through travel. The three day week ends with a paid holiday, would encourage families to go on short vacations and spend money.

[00:10:31] Talk about capitalism. Okay, let's get back to some more traditions now. I didn't know about some of these traditions. Memorial Day is one of the few days flags are ordered to fly at half mast and then full mast. So Memorial Day has like a unique flag deal going on at sunrise. Anybody flying a flag should raise the flag. According to let's see, this is Gettysburg Flag at sunrise. At sunrise, anyone flying a flag should raise the flag briskly to full staff and then slowly lower the flag to half staff. This is to honor the men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. And then at noon, the flag should be briskly raised to full staff. This is to salute all of those who have served. Never heard of that before. Another tradition is on Memorial Day is the president of the United States places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There's another one I didn't really know about. At 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day, Americans are asked to pause for one minute to pay tribute to Americans America's fallen soldiers. And this became official after the passage of the National Moment of Remembrance Act in the year 2000. Again, I've never heard of that. Now, here's an interesting thing I told you about. The Indianapolis 500 Civil War veterans tried to change the date of the Indianapolis 500 to keep it away from Decoration Day.

[00:12:15] So in 1911. The people running the Indianapolis 500 who say it's going to start on May 30th. And the people in charge of Decoration Day did not like this. Because they didn't want people drinking and gambling on the day set aside to honor the Civil War dead. So they became they started a big campaign, a grassroots campaign to have the date changed. And they got it all the way through the the Senate and the House in Indiana. And the governor vetoed it. I don't know all the details of that, but I wonder if the Indianapolis 500 people bribed him or something. I don't know. So anyway, Memorial Day is the Indianapolis 500. But it almost wasn't. And also Coca Cola jumped in and has the Coca-Cola 600 and NASCAR all right. During Memorial Day weekend. So. So it's one of the biggest racing days ever. Well, there you have it, folks. Go out and celebrate. But please don't forget why we are memorializing and celebrating. And check out that in Flanders Fields history. And, you know, take a little pause and just look at the traditions that have developed over the years to to thank the people that have helped us get where we are today. So have a great and safe Memorial Day. Tom Antion signing off.