Today Is Veterans Day

Neon Memes • Year after year, it vexes me that the sucrose-fueled excesses of Halloween transition instantly to the coast-to-coast cha-ching of Christmas. That transition slights the two great American holidays of November―Thanksgiving, in just over two weeks, and today, Veterans Day. Halloween and Christmas, of course, are infected by the Nag Factor: "Mooommy, I'll just diiie if you don't buuuy that for meee!" Moreover, in its potential appeal to gluttons, even Thanksgiving enjoys a certain cash-register cachet. Not so Veterans Day. Veterans Day admits no pocketbook blandishments, no point-of-sale temptations, no potential end-cap seductions. Veterans Day, in short, fails miserably as a showcase for shilling, as a holiday qua holy day in a nation whose conception of holiness nowadays begins and ends with a P&L statement. No, to recommend it, Veterans Day enjoys nothing more substantial than remembrance, nothing more substantial than recognition of bygone sacrifice and even valor in service to a country often so obsessed with its present that it scants its past. In that regard, presuming that your circle of family and friends includes veterans, dear hypothetical reader, can you attest, today of all days, that they recognize that you recognize that service? ―Bryan A. Hollerbach, Managing Editor