This Veterans Day, I go back to my hometown to watch the events put on by the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. When I was growing up, I attended the Veterans Day and Memorial Day events every year. It had nothing to do with my future service; the thought of joining the Army did not even cross my mind until I was 18. Somehow it was instilled in me that these were important events.

Attending these events early on in life gave me some perspective on audience turnout and interest in general. I was unable to attend as regularly after 9/11 because, from that point on, life was just a blur of deploy, redeploy, prepare for deployment, deploy, redeploy, prepare for deployment, repeat, repeat. But, I did manage to attend the first post-9/11 Memorial Day event, which was a shocker. Prior to 9/11, the Veterans Day and Memorial Day events, which are conducted similarly in my hometown, were not well attended. I vividly recall Memorial Day in 2001 – just a few months prior to 9/11 – because I was then a Second Lieutenant and it was the first event that I had been able to attend since heading off to military school. The handful of old veterans putting on the event outnumbered the spectators. It was depressing. But after 9/11 people seemed to appreciate their armed forces again. The events since then have had very high attendance, though it has declined since 2002.

It baffles me that so many people have no interest in Veterans Day and Memorial Day and cannot be bothered to participate in these very brief ceremonies. It also annoys me a bit that businesses remain open on this day, but I suspect that many people do not even realize the point of closing on holidays. The reason for being closed on Sunday used to be because that was a day of rest. Then it was justified because one should give folks the day off to attend church. Then it was justified because it was a slow business day. But the American consumer, ever the spendthrift, has changed its buying habits. Idle time is now prime time to rack up the credit card debt. Businesses, now seeing holidays as fast business days, meet the demand. I think that if they understood the point of closing and if they got the message that these days are held in high regard, then they might change their behavior.

That thought came to mind because I stumbled upon* this piece by Ruth Stonsifer. (FYI – this is who she is). God bless her, she lost one of her sons in Afghanistan, but I think her critique is way off base. (Bit of trivia: I graduated from Ranger School with another Soldier who was killed in the same incident as her son). I guess I share her frustration at the “commercialization” of Veterans Day, but only in form and not in substance. I don’t see it as “cashing in” or putting up Veterans Day “for sale” or anything resembling knowing and willful underhandedness. I see it as plain ignorance. I really do not think that most people today understand the rationale for closing up shop on a holiday. If they realized that the point of doing so is to ensure that as many people as possible can attend observances, then I suspect that more would comply – particularly the locally owned businesses that have a better connection to the communities. I am not so sure that railing against business activity and then insisting that businesses pony up cash is the way to go. That, in my opinion, is a horrible alternative. I think a better approach would be to educate people on the point of closing up shop on days when we commemorate service to the country.

Part of that education needs to be an insistence on observing holidays on the date that they fall on the calendar. For example, last year, Memorial Day was celebrated on Sunday, March 24. Why? What sense did that make? Memorial Day is supposed to be May 30, which happened to fall on a Saturday. How do we knock businesses for not understanding the point of the holiday when we, as a society, have taken up the habit of observing it on the most convenient Monday, to ensure that we get a nice long weekend? What message is sent if we engage in the inexplicable scheduling of last May to observe a holiday 6 days early on a Saturday? Insisting that it be observed, regardless of the day of the week, sends a message that it is a little more important. Next, some emphasis on turnout would help. This seems to be a simple message: If your business is open, then your employees are unable to attend. If you are holding a sale, then your customers are tempted to not attend. Please do your part to increase turnout.

Knocking the businesses for greed and demanding that they cough up money in support of veterans? I see nothing productive coming from this. If anything it condones the activity on the holiday, so long as some of us get our cut. That is not the right message. I think the key is simply to encourage turnout, educate the business owners, restore Veterans Day and Memorial Day observances to the proper day, and make it clear that this is important. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM, I will hop into my vehicle to do my small part. I even bought gas this evening, just in case the gas stations are closed on the way there.

* - by “stumbled upon” I mean it was the first thing to pop up in Google; I’m not one to go bookmarking Huffington Post or Free Republic; I probably wouldn't have read it, had the author's name not rung a bell