(As opposed to the rest, which are merely largely self-indulgent).
This morning, my six-year-old daughter gravely informed me that she has no school on Thursday, November 11th.
“That’s right, Rose; and do you know why there is no school on Thursday?”
She stared intently at the calendar. Then she found her answer.
“Because it’s Veterinarians Day.”
Not a bad idea, actually….
Author: Jonathan Zasloff
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy. View all posts by Jonathan Zasloff
Good! I take this as license to make a completely self-indulgent comment and point everyone to http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/11/05/video-obama-…
This was on the same page as http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/10/08/its-official… -than-during-entire-bush-years/ , which is all about how more private sector jobs were created under Obama than under Bush; boring old facts and figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Then the video on the side caught my attention.
Recall Kurt Vonegut's comment that Veterans Day was the act of the living taking what belonged to the dead (Armistice Day) and noted that the living always steal what rightfully belongs to the dead.
I think celebrating peace in honor of the dead is a much better use of a day than celebrating the accomplishments of veterans in honor of war. Maybe I'm just getting too damned cynical in my old age or too damned idealistic.
The definitive self-indulgent blog post, which can never be surpassed, is Jim Henley´s classic one-word ¨Blog¨ from 2006. Henley´s web host server shut the thread down automatically after 21 days and 1104 comments. I was commenter 138.
If I had my way, Abel Gance's 1937 film "J'accuse" would be to Veterans' Day (and Memorial Day) what "It's A Wonderful Life" is to Christmas: the film people see year after year. The part where the protagonist goes to the Verdun cemetary and calls forth the dead of the Great War to march against the impending mobilization of Europe is something to behold.
On the eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour, the spay and neuter clinics shut down all over Europe, PUPPIES AND KITTENS EVERYWHERE!
Nope. They got it wrong.
As a veteran, I declare that Veterans' Day falls on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November… because that's why we're US veterans and not UK veterans.
This reminds me of the tale of a first-grader who came home one day in early October and announced, much like your daughter, that there was no school on Monday because of a holiday.
"And did the teacher tell you what the holiday is?"
"It's Columbus Day, but only if you're Jewish."
Sure, we SAY we want to honor our veterans. So how come is it they don't get a three day weekend? Hmmmmm? Lousy lamestream media…