Sacramento, CA

So I really wanted to let everyone know about all kinds of things to do in Sacramento to celebrate Veterans Day. However, for some strange reason there really weren’t any. There were a couple of parades in Elk Grove and Fairfield, but I didn’t hear about anything in Sacramento itself. If there was anything special, then it wasn’t advertised well at all. This seems very sad to me since this IS the State Capitol. Shouldn’t we be showing a little bit more patriotism? Shouldn’t we be setting an example for the rest of California? I think it’s completely tragic that none of that happened here. Furthermore, I feel as if we have failed all of our local hometown heroes by not supporting them when it could have been so easy.

In fact, a lot of the people I work with didn’t even know what Holiday it is! Someone suggested Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday…another said Labor Day. Only one person other than myself correctly said Veterans Day. However, even that person didn’t even really seem to understand why we celebrate it. In fact, she went as far as to say that she gets it mixed up with Labor Day since “they’re practically the same thing anyway”!! I couldn’t believe how ignorant and uncaring people in this city have become.

Anyway, I WAS impressed this morning when I read a poem that Marie Esselstein posted on her Columbus, Ohio blog this morning. It was poignant and beautiful. More importantly though, it showed a deep respect for our veterans and an understanding for all of the countless sacrifices that they have made just to give us the freedom to NOT respect them–if we are callous enough to choose that path. Go and read it sometime today if you have time…

Sacramento, Veterans Day, Veterans Day in Sacramento, Veterans Day poetry