Memorial Day | The Professor's Convatorium

As this once great nation called the United States of America celebrates its upcoming 250^th birthday, over the last decade our country has been struggling and fighting within itself to hold fast to its core values as engineered by its famed 18^th-century Core Founding Fathers and its treasured Charters of Freedom were spelled out on parchment.

But this weekend with Monday, May 25th, 2026, bookends the Memorial Weekend, we remember all of our fallen soldiers since 1776 to the present-day who made the ultimate sacrifice for this land, its citizens, their families, and everything this country is supposed to stand for… we face an uncertain, tumultuous next two years and beyond. We Americans are not only memorializing our fallen heroes this weekend and Monday, but we are also literally fighting for this democracy’s survival against an unprecedented, tyrannical King and his regime of sycophants!

*The proposed Arch de Trump on Columbia Island off the Potomac River will stand 250-feet tall and 165-feet wide*

During Memorial Day weekend up until July 4^th, Independence Day, ironically celebrating the break-away 250-years ago from another King and empire abusing its power and authority without representation from its colonists in the “New World,” we should also be remembering today the sacrifices so many soldiers, men then women, their families and closest friends as well as their fellow soldiers gave when it counted most. But very soon this will all be diminished, tainted, and obscured by a gross and gaudy monstrosity blocking the view of Arlington Memorial Cemetery as seen from the Lincoln Memorial and all other war memorials surrounding the National Mall. This construction of a self-imposed triumphal arch known as Arch de Trump will be a classless eye-sore and slap in the face for all veterans living and deceased by nothing less than a sitting President.

*A rendering of the planned arch as seen from Arlington National Cemetery toward Lincoln Memorial, the National Mall, and Washington Monument*

Does this hideous, self-aggrandizing, Caesar-esque waste of taxpayer dollars demonstrate any level of reverence, patriotism, gratitude, and symbolism of a people’s democracy protected and won by our nation’s soldiers in blood? No, not even close. It is pure and simple one man’s deluded self-perception of unproven, empty greatness. Nothing more. It demonstrates the exact same arrogance all dictators, emperors, and kings throughout history built in their own image and a man’s disregard for his subjects, his people, and the enormous, selfless sacrifices made in their own lives and those to follow. Nothing about this repulsive arch speaks to any of those core values this nation has stood for and fought for in blood. This current mentally-ill president is and has been a shameful disgrace to us, to our foreign allies, and to true American history.

Therefore, let us remember what this Memorial Day weekend is really about: the true heroes who gave the highest price for our freedom, liberty, equality for one and all (E Pluribus Unum) and generations to follow, and who didn’t need or want Roman statues of gold, large glittering pools, flashy currency and coins, an Apian Way, museums and coliseums named after them, massive gold ballrooms, or worse, their face carved into Mount Rushmore. No, all these past, ordinary American men and women wanted was to be remembered for their sacrifice. That’s it.

Today, May 24th on CNN.com and again May 25th at 8pm EST/7pm CST, on normal CNN they are airing a special documentary called Why We Dream. It will be a vivid and intimate reflection by living WWII veterans exploring the power of memory and the quiet persistence of trauma and hope experienced in combat. It blends in rare wartime footage, 16mm home movies, cinematic portraiture, and classic film excerpts all directed by Meredith Danluck who created this emotionally driven examination of war’s lasting imprint. Here is a short trailer:

That is what celebrating 250-years means, or should mean. That is what a spectacular, sobering, unobstructed view of Arlington National Cemetery from the National Mall means to all this country’s veterans, living and passed, and their descendants. Let us not forget them and how humble, willing, and honored they fought and died to win, and then protect what it means to be one of many. I repeat, one of many. As the famous U.S. Army Major Richard “Dick” Winters of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagles told his grandson who had asked him if he was a hero in the war, Winters answered:

“No… but I served in a company of heroes.”

That answer is what most great ~~Commander-in-Chiefs~~ leaders give. They do not take all the credit and glory for themselves. They fully realize that in order to lead a platoon, a company, a regiment, a division… a nation, a true leader takes little to no credit for himself and humbly gives praise to those around him and the people he serves.

Remember Our “True” Heroes

I’d rather be posting about the joint SpaceX-NASA launch today at 4:33pm EST. It will be the United States first launch of two astronauts into space since 2011 atop the new Falcon 9 rocket. It will be big news for many reasons. I do hope everything goes well, goes perfectly and hopefully the weather is going to cooperate. Unfortunately, we are still in the middle of a much bigger, unprecedented pandemic story dealing with just as much risk of life and death as space exploration ever has, actually more so for the mere fact that COVID-19 has taken hundreds of thousands of American lives and 350,000+ around the world. Controlling then stopping this pandemic is more important than the distraction and excitement of a SpaceX launch.

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This past Memorial Day weekend saw record crowds outside at beaches, parks, resorts, and Memorial-Veteran celebration events not seen since mid-March or before. As all 50 states began lifting and easing coronavirus restrictions this past week under pressure from pro-business, pro-economy, pro-danger-n-risk GOP groups, many Americans blatantly disregarded social-distancing and wearing protective masks. From Al Jazeera news:

In the Tampa area, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the crowds were so big that authorities took the extraordinary step of closing parking lots. The county’s sheriff, Bob Gualtieri, said about 300 deputies were patrolling the beaches to ensure people did not get too close.
In the state of Missouri, people packed bars and restaurants at the Lake of the Ozarks, a vacation hot spot popular with Chicagoans, over the weekend.
One video showed a crammed pool where vacationers lounged close together without masks, St Louis station KMOV-TV reported.
In West Virginia, ATV riders jammed the vast, 700-mile Hatfield-McCoy network of all-terrain vehicle trails on the first weekend it was allowed to reopen since the outbreak took hold. Campgrounds and cabins were opened, as well.

Patrick T. Fallon-Reuters — *Florida beach front Memorial weekend – Patrick Fallon/Reuters*

Many authorities and law-enforcement have been confronted with disdain and hostility by Americans when trying to enforce or promote safety measures during the entire pandemic restrictions. This is perhaps the saddest testimony of a Dis-United States of America during this crisis. Park authorities, municipalities, and law-enforcement all agree that they cannot possibly monitor and make all Americans stay at least 6-feet apart. They do not have the staff to accomplish such a ridiculous order. However, they do remind all Americans that it is 90% self-governance and kind regard for neighbors, friends, and strangers alike. It is safety and health for everyone first as well as yourself. Common sense, right?

Port Aransas, Texas [Eric Gay-The Associated Press] — *Gulf beach at Port Aransas, TX, Memorial weekend – Eric Gay/Associated Press*

In a May 2020 study by the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, the W.H.O. Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analytics, the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics, Imperial College London, and the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, there are 24 states in the U.S. that still have not contained their COVID-19 outbreaks. Here are the 10 worst, most at risk states for a June 2020 resurgence of the deadly virus, from worst to less worse:

Texas
Arizona
Illinois
Colorado
Ohio
Minnesota
Indiana
Iowa
Alabama
Wisconsin

I am not the least bit surprised that Texas leads the pack in being #1 in NOT controlling our coronavirus outbreaks and most likely to suffer the worst with another June outbreak. For well over two weeks here in Dallas there are noticeably less and less people applying social-distancing or wearing masks. That most likely means they are not washing their hands regularly either. Texans see our nation’s leader never wearing a mask and taking doses of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has no clinical tests proving it works against COVID-19. This is a remarkably sad testimony for how Americans and Texans do not care for each other—unless of course it is their own family or a dear financially beneficial friend or Good Ole Boy—and care less about medical-scientific facts on pandemics and what the true experts warn and recommend. It’s a new era of illiteracy and unenlightenment.

Despite the increase of rebels and protesters throughout late April and all of May here in Texas and an uptick in the number of deaths, in Dallas County the number of ICU patients and emergency room visits for COVID-19 has flattened out. This is encouraging, yes. But the real indicator of whether this reopening happened too soon and many blowing off safety measures in public will be the final numbers around June 10th through the 14th when the incubation period expires for Memorial weekend infections and hospitalizations trend upward again. Whatever happens, the fact remains that in February and early March all of this should have been seriously addressed nationwide by our federal leadership. It wasn’t. American death-toll: 100,000+ and counting.

Three cheers for COVID-19. The winner! It is going to be around and a menace for a long, LONG time with this kind of unity and lack of virtues for others. I hope a tested, FDA-approved, effective vaccine is found and distributed very soon.

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Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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