The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865, and claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history, which required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.
 
By the late 1860’s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.
 
On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.
 
The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.
 
On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.
 
Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and repeated the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the war dead on separate days until after World War I.
 
Decoration Day gradually came to be known as Memorial Day and originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.
 
It is still unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings, but in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.
 
Waterloo celebrated its first Memorial Day on May 5, 1866, and was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.
 
Unofficially, Memorial Day  marks the beginning of summer.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 15, 2023, as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 14 through May 20, 2023, as Police Week.  I call upon all Americans to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities and salute our Nation’s brave law enforcement officers and remember their peace officer brothers and sisters who have given their last full measure of devotion in the line of duty.  I also call on the Governors of the United States and its Territories, and appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day.  I further encourage all Americans to display the flag at half-staff from their homes and businesses on that day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh.
                                                                                                                        JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

Perhaps I was asleep at the wheel, but I just discovered this injustice - and it's been going on since Obama Care. The image is dated, and the figure today is around $570. Our government has got to do better by our military families.

I just finished reading a post from Congressman Posey regarding the Chinese Communist Party supplying energy products to the U.S. covertly. His response follows:

"Congressman Posey's bipartisan, bicameral legislation to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for violating U.S. trade laws and support American manufacturers and workers passed the House floor last week.
 
The bill utilizes the Congressional Review Act to rescind a recent Commerce Department rule which allows CCP-owned and other foreign solar manufacturers to circumvent U.S. trade tariffs by delivering their products to the U.S. through third-party counties, all to the detriment of American companies and workers
 
“Our federal government should be getting behind American businesses and leading the effort to boost our competitiveness around the world, especially when it comes to our nation’s energy independence. The Department of Commerce rule is a loophole that favors foreign businesses and undercuts American manufacturers of solar panels,” said Congressman Posey."

If eligible, you can get your tickets here: Sea World

On Veterans Day 2022, it was announced that veterans of the U.S. Armed Services and Gold Star Families can obtain a free lifetime pass to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites spread out across more than 400 million acres of public lands, including national parks, wildlife refuges, and forests.  

“We have a sacred obligation to America’s veterans. This new lifetime pass is a small demonstration of our nation’s gratitude and support for those who have selflessly served in the U.S. Armed Forces,” said Secretary Deb Haaland, whose father served during the Vietnam War. “I’m proud the Department of the Interior can provide veterans and Gold Star Families opportunities for recreation, education and enjoyment from our country’s treasured lands.”  

“Our national forests and grasslands represent so much of the beauty of the nation our brave service members have sacrificed so much for,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Though they can never be fully repaid, by connecting the families of the fallen and those who served with these iconic places, we can, in a small way, say thank you.”   

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and our federal teammates are proud to honor our veterans with free lifetime access to more than 2,000 federal recreation areas across the nation,” said Lieutenant General (LTG) Scott Spellmon, Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“This is a small token of appreciation for veterans who have bravely dedicated their lives to defending our freedom.” “This pass conveys our immense gratitude and respect for those who have given so much,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “As a veteran, I know firsthand the many sacrifices that members of the Armed Forces and their families have made in service to our country, and I am thrilled that Gold Star Families and military veterans can now enjoy lifetime access to national parks and other public lands.”

Each lifetime pass covers entrance fees for a driver and all passengers in a personal vehicle (or passholder and up to three adults at sites that charge per person) at national parks and national wildlife refuges, as well as standard amenity fees at national forests and grasslands, and at lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.   

Veterans can present one of the four forms of acceptable ID (Department of Defense ID Card, Veteran Health ID (VHIC), Veteran ID Card, or veteran’s designation on a state-issued US driver’s license or ID card) at participating federal recreation areas that normally charge an entrance fee. Gold Star Families obtain information, self-certify they qualify and download a voucher on NPS.gov. 

The Alexander Lofgran Veterans in Parks Act, passed in December 2021, authorized free lifetime access to federal lands to veterans and Gold Star Families. The new lifetime pass for veterans and Gold Star Families is in addition to the free annual Military Pass, which has been available to active duty servicemembers and their families since Armed Forces Day, May 19, 2012.     

Federal recreational land management agencies offer additional lifetime passes, including a Senior Pass for US citizens or permanent residents over age 62 and an Access Pass for US citizens or permanent residents with a permanent disability. More information is available on NPS.gov.   

The Interior Department and other federal land agencies also offer fee-free entrance days for everyone throughout the year to mark days of celebration and commemoration.

Although the title says FREE, if you order your pass online with your name on it from the USG store, there is a $10 "processing fee" attached. 

If you are thinking about getting contact lenses, then you should probably read the following by Colleen Tressler, Division of Consumer and Business Education, FTC:

The FTC recently sent 24 cease and desist letters to eye doctors after getting reports they may have violated the Contact Lens Rule by ignoring important rights of patients. That includes the requirement that eye doctors must give you a copy of your contact lens prescription at the end of a lens fitting — whether you ask for it or not — at no extra charge. This means you don’t have to buy your lenses from your eye doctor and lets you use your prescription to comparison shop among contact lens sellers for the best deal.

Here’s how the process is supposed to work. If your eye doctor is willing to sell you lenses, that means your fitting is complete and you should get a copy of your prescription. Just know that a fitting may take more than one appointment and often involves a fee that’s separate from the eye exam charge. What’s more, your eye doctor:

• should ask you to sign a confirmation that you got your prescription
• can’t make you pay for your prescription, although they may require you to pay for
the contact lens examination and fitting fee or show proof of insurance, which is
considered payment
• can’t say you have to buy contact lenses from them or tell you to sign a waiver or
release to get your prescription.

If you think an eye doctor is violating the Contact Lens Rule, report it to the FTC at
ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

For more information, see Buying Prescription Glasses or Contact Lenses: Your Rights.

It's no secret that the military kicked out members who objected to the COVID mandate in the military - and they refuse to reenlist and offer back pay after the mandates were cancelled. Our friend in the Senate, Rick Scott, said this about that -

Senator Rick Scott said, “The Biden administration and the Pentagon have turned their backs on America’s service members. The military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate has proven disastrous for America’s military readiness and needlessly destroyed the lives and careers of thousands of brave service members. To now rule out back pay for these heroes is UNACCEPTABLE and I won’t stand for it.

I was just in Panama City yesterday and heard firsthand how Biden’s military vaccine mandate is hurting our military members, their families and our communities. These are the folks that put their lives on the line to protect this great country and while repealing the vaccine mandate was a big win, it falls short of fixing the damage done to the thousands who were foolishly discharged from our Armed Forces. Come hell or high water, we will make this right. It’s time for Secretary Austin to stand up for our military members, do what’s right for our readiness and bring these members back with the full pay and benefits they so rightly deserve. If he won’t do it, we’ll put this common sense approach in law.”

      "Men, like nations, think they're invincible.  What man in his 20s or 30s doesn't believe, at least subconsciously, that he'll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it's harder to hide from reality.... as you lose friends and relatives.

      Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever.... Forever was about 500 years, give or take.... not bad, but gone!!

      France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.

      In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in perpetual twilight. Its 96-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.
 
     In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.

     I was born in 1945, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century - the American century. America's prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the 'Greatest Generation,' we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.

   We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world.    We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA...the blueprint of life.

    But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism - which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world.

    We've gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.

     The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, 'Dr. Jill' had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency.

     We can't defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity.  Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.

     The president of the United States can't even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence ('You know - The Thing') correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd. Amendment and slash police budgets.

      Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they're women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they're inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about 'unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.'

     We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It's a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our 'entertainment' is sadistic, nihilistic, and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive.

     Patriotism is called an insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a dress. We're asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.

     How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lock-downs, and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.

     How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?

• Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win
• Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay
• Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde
• Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule
• Allowing indoctrination of the young
• Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy
• Losing national identity
• Indulging indolence
• Abandoning God, faith and family - the bulwarks of any stable society.

     
     In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease.

    Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I'm surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected.

    This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don't want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.

     During Britain's darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen.
'Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.'

     The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us?

     While the prognosis is far from good. Only God knows if America's day in the sun is over."

Author Unknown
 

Although it’s often overlooked, the loss of a friend is just as devastating as that of any other loved one. It comes with the same force and it quickly takes you through a whirlwind of emotions before it throws you at grief’s mercy. Expect to be shocked, angry, confused and deeply disturbed as you try to make sense of it and adapt to its demands.
 
Grieving the loss of a friend is just as personal and unique as any other grief. It’s shaped by your relationship with them and it can be affected by age.

Nobody can prepare you for such a loss, even if it is the result of a long illness. Losing a close friend as an adult is likely to trigger a series of emotions beginning with shock and disbelief. Confusion or inabilities to talk about your feelings are also quite likely reactions in the early days of your loss.

However, you feel, remember that it takes time to process that loss and to come to terms with it. Don’t be impatient with yourself and don’t pretend that you are not affected by it. Open the floodgates to let all these feelings and emotions overwhelm you. Then start to work your way through them as you begin to move forward with your life. Expect to cycle through the same feelings or to feel stuck and unable to see a way out of it. That’s how grief works but it gets better with time. 

Being in a friendship with someone is a complex process which is based on respect, trust and admiration. It involves a certain level of emotional and instrumental support too. The apparent lack of that support is likely to be one of the first challenges associated with the loss of a close friend.

It can influence your relationships with other people or raise questions about current friendships. Feel free to take some time out or to invest more of your time developing new friendships with people who can add value to your life.