Memorial Day, 2011

Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, honors the men and women who died while serving in the American military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, the long Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of summer. In 2011, Memorial Day is observed on Monday, May 30.

They fought that we might live in freedom.
Thank you.

 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Look through this photo album for more Memorial Day images.

Veterans' Day

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.
Bagpipes, parades, American flags and marching veterans are all part of Veterans' Day celebrations in big cities and small towns across the country. It would be hard to find a family, much less a community, without a veteran to remember and honor. 
The United States of America will never forget that Freedom is not free.

The History Channel has several Veterans' Day videos available, including the  History of Veterans' Day.

I Am America

Here is a visual representation of the poem "I am America" by Julie Redstone.

I AM AMERICA

Julie Redstone

I am America. I am blueberry muffins and eggs-over-easy in silverfoil diners        with blue neon signs and newspapers out front,        where the regulars come to fill up on warmth and               the everpresent feeling of family, I am picnic baskets made of straw, and tall grass with milkweed,        worn blankets to sit on, and the smell of new mown hay        drifting past from a farm nearby, I am playgrounds with rusty swings and ancient maple trees,        and water fountains with bubbly spouts        that little children gleefully reach toward               as they try to catch the moving water with their tongues, I am fourth-of-July parades, and lawn chairs, and iced tea on the front porch,        and the smell of chicken roasting in the oven,        and friends coming over for coffee and fresh-baked pie and a little talk, I am polka festivals and Saturday-night dancing        with Hank Tomarr and the Harmonics,        and clean white shirts at Sunday church,              and innocence, not arrogance, I am rolling hills, and dirty streets, and windswept plains,        and airless apartments in cities that are always lit,        whose elegance lies in ancient fire escapes              that are havens in the summer heat, I am chlorine-blue city pools, and laughter of children,        and washrooms that smell of disinfectant,        and young mothers with the eyes of eagles watching their young, I am the suffering of the lonely, of the hungry, of the dreamless        who live without hope, and who hope only to escape              from the dreamlessness, I am the icons of the fast-food world – hamburgers and cokes,        pizza and buffalo wings, french fries and happy meals, I am speed of life wanting more and more speed,        striving for more and more doing,        no time to sit, no time to listen, no time, And I am lazy days of going nowhere, of wondering what it all means,        of waking up, for a moment, beyond the things I do,              into a wondering of who I am. I am freedom. I am possibility. I am golden opportunity        knocking at the door at every moment, And I am also the closed and silent door for the many who strive        to hear the sound of opportunity but cannot, I am prayer and I am gratitude – to that which watches over freedom        and creates endless possibility – to the Source of life itself. I am America. I am strong, I am proud, I am weak, I am vain, I am childlike, I am brash, I am plainspoken, I am noble, I am wise, I am foolish, I am young, I am ancient, I am the flame of endless possibility –        the golden promise of an open-ended Life.