Memorial Day - National Cemetery Philadelphia

This morning I thought that I would take pictures of the Philadelphia National Cemetery decorated. There were a few people visiting, but no flags. I hadn't heard why there weren't any, but it had been announce on the radio early last week. While I was there, I stayed for the Observance, which was organized by the Philadelphia County Council of the Disabled American Veterans. I took a few pictures of the ceremony and the cemetery.

In each picture, a flag among many graves. Click on the bottom picture, the flag is in the center below tree. I didn't feel right, walking over the graves to get closer.

A broader view.

Ceremony

 

I missed the Color Guard and the gun salute. I had run out of memory and had to delete some pictures in order to get these. Most veterans here were my generation or older. The members of the Disable American Veterans seemed almost a rag tag bunch, but all had such purpose and bemoaned the fact that there were no younger veterans. I found myself pissed that there not had been flags placed at each grave and hopefully can find and join some group that will do it next year. The picture above is the place the most recent veterans have been buried.

The ceremony itself was perfunctory, but the place is moving. It was a totally unexpected experience to be among the dead, veterans of war, since the Civil War.

I think I got a gig

I think I...

How does this happen?

The last recall on Romaine lettuce seems incredulous. Has any farmer learned from previous contaminated produce? I could fathom how this happen in some other countries where they washed produce in water that wasn't treated properly, but this happened in Arizona. Don't we have clean water standards? Contamination from handling? Who's watching?

Pet Peave

I have noticed lately that there seem to be a lot of ad campaigns against the mistreatment of pets. I began to wonder if people value animals more than children, since I have seen relative few ads to help abused children. Another ad came on this morning about abused pets and for some reason it irked me more that at other times. We know in this society what lies ahead for an abused child. Also we know that there may not be good outcome resulting from children who are homeless or go hungry or in very unstable situations. I do know that there are organizations designed to help children in need, but they don't seem to get the word out or have a celebrity pleading with you to help them.

Even though, I am not a pet person, I don't think animals should be mistreated, but I don't think animals should be put ahead of people. When I had expressed that to a co-worker, I was asked why couldn't we advocate for both. I feel that if humans worked on their own problems and eliminate our destructive nature toward other humans, we wouldn't have pet abuse or mistreatment of other animals. This is not to say that we should do nothing about the abuse of animals, it is just that I don't think it is where most of our charity should be placed.