There is a lot on my mind as we sit in the midst of the Memorial Day weekend.
Let us begin with that “weekend” aspect. Oldtimers will recall when Memorial Day, which my one grandmother always referred to as its original name of “Decoration Day,” was celebrated on May 30, every year, no matter what day of the week it fell upon.
It was a day of observance, begun in 1868, the wake of our Civil War, to honor deceased veterans by decorating their graves. The May 30 date was picked intentionally to avoid any specific battle or surrender date, but instead give both sides a chance to honor their military dead without opportunists trying to leverage the day. The observance was meant to begin the healing process.
But, modern politicians 100 years removed from that reality, saw the chance to “give” the public something while heeding the wishes of their lobbyist masters, and passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This moved four federal holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to Mondays.
The legislation was signed by president Lyndon Johnson in 1968, but did not take effect until 1971.
Citizenry, especially those in government, celebrated the gift of a three-day weekend, a phenomenon that has been borrowed to turn Thanksgiving into a week away from work or school. The business and transportation industries were giddy over the opportunity for increased sales, increased travel and generally more money flowing into their coffers that the 1968 law provided
Some at the time, including West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, opposed the change, noting it would create a time of “hilarity and merriment” instead of solemn reflection. He was not wrong.
Take a quick poll today among the rapidly diminishing working class – why work when one can live a middle-class lifestyle on the dole? – and you will find few who are aware, or care, that Monday is officially Memorial Day. Forgive them, I guess. For them, every day is a day off work.
It is fitting on some level that the Memorial Day celebration used to include what came to be known as “The Greatest Day In Racing.”
The Formula One Monaco Grand Prix was run in what are early morning hours in the United States, followed by the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola (formerly the World) 600 NASCAR race.
I used to make it a point to watch all three. Today, not so much.
First, the Monaco Grand Prix race date has been moved to June and today’s Formula One race is the Canada Grand Prix. I might have considered watching that, except the rulers of Formula One have turned the series into an unrecognizable mishmash of virtue-signaling, political correctness and general disorder. Plus, broadcast rights in the U.S. have been sold to Apple TV and I’m not about to throw that multi-national left-wing lovefest any of my money.
The IndyCar series is similarly unrecognizable to traditional fans, a state of affairs accelerated by the sanctioning body’s ability to change the rules seemingly by the minute, to the point where almost no one, even the drivers, can coherently state what is or isn’t allowed.
It doesn’t help interest that the series is remarkably uncompetitive, a recent hallmark of Formula One, and that is not a good thing.
As for NASCAR, fill in the blanks with the same failures of the other two racing operations. There is general confusion having to do with ever-changing cars, formats and rules, too much time spent in currying favor with the political left at the expense of traditional fans, and general tone-deafness in turning racing from a meritocracy into a DEI operation.
I did take a break from writing this to race (pun intended) to the upstairs TV, just to turn it on to the Indy race channel and put it on pause, that I might view the race start, then move on to something productive, like checking my email.
It seems the Memorial Day holiday weekend increasingly mirrors the ongoing loss of traditional values in this country. And that is a painful thing to watch.
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