...memorial day...

Saturday was Chicago's annual Memorial Day Parade. As members of a Gold Star Family (one that has lost a solider) we were invited to a breakfast and wreath laying ceremony prior to the parade. The breakfast was nice, held in the famed Walnut Room at Macy's although of course, everyone there wished that they didn't have to be there - because being there meant that another soldier had been lost. But anyway. Mayor Daley spoke, and the Grand Marshall of the Parade, a general of something or other. The wreath laying also included speeches from the Mayor, Governor Quinn, and a few more other military types. "Taps" was played - and there is nothing more sad than watching military men and women in uniform and those out of uniform, saluting the flag while that mournful song is playing. These people are the true heroes among us, the real American Idols. I may not agree entirely with the reasons we are at war, but I support, wholeheartedly, the men and women (some of them not yet even 25) who are fighting to uphold our freedom and our values overseas. I hope you all come home safely and soon, and that there will be no more need to award grieving mothers flags with gold stars on them.

So. Onto the parade. The Gold Star Family members had a lovely little special place to sit, next to the reviewing stand which again was very nice and thoughtful. A little short on excitement, that parade was, with never ending legions of high school ROTC groups marching along. In every instance, the head cheese would yell to the kids: "Eyes! Right!" and a bunch of heads would swivel in our direction at once which was a little bit unsettling.