You're not supposed to wish folks a Happy Memorial Day since Memorial Day is a time of mourning and remembrance. Then again, judging from my e-mailbox this morning, it's also a time of really great bargains if I rush to my nearby Target store, order new underwear from Hanes or pounce on any of several dozen Memorial Day Sales. And you don't even have to have lost a loved one in the military to take advantage of them.
As a kid, I was a little fuzzy on what you're supposed to do on Memorial Day except remember, and how it differs from Veterans Day in November. Wikipedia — which as we all know is never wrong about anything — tells us "Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans."
So we mourn the dead on one and celebrate them all on the other. Seems to me there's a gap in there. On which one do we acknowledge the sacrifice of those who didn't die while serving but did suffer lasting injuries and disabilities, including the emotional kind? There are an awful lot of them and we don't seem to do right by those folks. And while they should be remembered, that's not enough. They should also be helped and not just with a twenty-four hour sale at Lowe's.
Remembering these folks is, literally, the least we can do. There is no gesture or action that demands less of us than to remember.