Show some respect Cameron!

Today is Memorial Day.
I learned its meaning on my first working summer holiday in the US in 1971. 

Since 1970 the day has been celebrated there on the last Monday in May. It’s purpose is to honour the American Armed Forces, often deployed in defence of freedoms their forefathers had wrested from oppressive European monarchies in the 18th Century. 

I have never been a fan of Ronald Reagan, but he hits the nail on the head in defining Memorial Day in the adjacent photo.

By the 1970’s most young adults in the Western World, including me, genuinely believed that  barbarism had been laid to rest together along with the destruction of Hitler’s bunker.

For many in the Woodstock generation Memorial Day was was the first opportunity of the year to sit on the beach, smoke a bit of weed, and speak peace love dove.

But we have now grown up quite a bit, and have learned that the horrors of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda movement and the violently sexist influence of the Talibans are as repulsive as the racist European and American upper and middle classes were a couple of hundred years ago.

Back then the plantation owner, and the aristocrats, thought of nothing but themselves, and their own enjoyment.

Such was the dominant philosophy before socialist thought began to moderate the excesses of western society.

Well done Ronald Reagan, for you speak of values that put to shame the poverty of hedonism.  

In contrast, two days after a British serviceman was decapitated in London leading to a nationwide outpouring of disbelief and empathy for family of the bereaved , the British Prime Minister packs his bags and heads for a beach holiday in Ibiza.

I never did think Cameron to be on the same wavelength as the rest of us. This confirms it.