Please Explain Why:

Why is it that people think it appropriate to say: "Happy Veterans Day". There is nothing "happy" about Veterans Day. It is a day of Solemnity and Thankfulness......not happiness. Are people "happy" that someone is willing to step up and defend our ways of life and tinking? Are they "happy" because they don't have to go to work?

I just don't get it.

 

We all had a meeting while you were asleep and decided to say this just to annoy you.

Actually its the reverse, they don't get it.

 

I think maybe it is out of familiarity or maybe politeness???? I'm not sure but I thought about it alot today as even I said it while posting or talking to other vets....While in the back of my mind I was thinking of my Great Uncle or others who have made the ultimate sacrifice or even just served and given up chunks of their life....none of it was easy but it is what it is....
maybe someone's way to be polite/respectful or someone's way to say thanks it ain't much but thanks(political correctness here)...just my humble opinion........

By the way Happy Birthday Jarhead!!!!!!

 

Well, what in the hell do you expect, Jug....."Have a **** day" instead?

It's out of politeness and good manners that we wish each other a Happy......Day.

The other dimension is, these days are HOLIDAYS in most countries. So, if you wish to be miserable on a National or State holiday, thats your choice.

I ask again, what do you seriously expect from people? Don't forget, the greater majority of veterans in ANY war come home and wish to FORGET all about the war they just fought. For these people, memorials just drag up uselessly sad memories, or conjure images of events rather forgotten, or people that no longer exist and HAVE been forgotten by everyone else outside of their immediate family.

Too, it's only winners that "celebrate" days like this. I'm damned sure German veterans don't 'celebrate anything, and go through their lives wishing fervently that everyone would build a bridge and get over the events of 1939-1945. And even the greatest of victories can be dimmed with the passage of time. Nobody celbrates Trafalgar Day in Britain anymore. If you want to go back a lot further, how many of Leonidas's "300 Spartans" at Thermopolae can people actually name anymore? This battle ensured the survival of the Western world for a brilliant and diverse future, and the deeds of the Spartans were told and retold, firmly imprinted on the consciousness of Lacedaemonians for ever after. But, we forgot them too, and we now have records for only a handful of the estimated 10,000 Greeks on the field at the 'Hot Gates'.

Glory fades, and even the 'Old Guard' survivors die from natural causes. They were human after all, like all soldiers.

 

Some of it is probably thoughtlessness, not thinking about exactly what the day means and why it's not really appropriate or even sensible to say, "Happy Veterans Day." But I think it's a little bit like the things people say to people when they are grieving for a loved one who has died, like when they tell them they know how they feel because their cat died, or that it was God's plan (which may or may not be the truth, I don't know) - their intentions are good, but they either don't really know how it feels because they've never been in that situation, so they don't really know what to say, or they say something they think is comforting. Sometimes you just have to look at the intention behind the words, and grit your teeth.

I just try to say "thank you." Thank you, formerjughead!

 

well 99 % treat it just as a day off no work go play, make it a 4-day weekend to party, remember ? remember whom ? would be the final analysis in our cold world when youth especially all over the planet does not care or does not wish to know and so easily history will repeat itself

 

Erich, history does not repeat itself.

Newer generations grow to maturity thinking that they know far more than wht their parents did. They also believe they can "Do it better".

Quite naturally, this leads to the same mistakes occurring over and again. History does not repeat itself, but the children of people do.

 

Perhaps not, but in the words of Mark Twain; "...history doesn't necessarily repeat, but it does sometimes rhyme."

 

More than likely because it is a Federal Holiday, The phrase is used to wish everyone a good holiday. Just another reason to 'party' on the majority's part.

 

Well at 72 and having grown up in an area of many veterans I have never heard the expression until this thread . If it is used and I feel it must be from reading here I think Clem got the explanation right and her analogies correct. thank you Cleem.

Gaines

 

from what I have seen in the mideast first hand yes history repeats itself like right now ............ yeah I know I should be talking about what is happening in the good ol US of A. repetition is not always bad but subtle changes can be seen and you can see the qualities good and the bad, fashion for example what goes around comes around and not just the song either

 

My point is that the day is treated like anyother arbitrary holiday: "Columbus Day" , "Caesar Chavez Day" etc ad nauseum. The original intent of the day has been lost in the myriad other paid days off work.

 

Brad, I wonder if we don't really need to trace the origin of the holiday to its beginning to consider why the "Happy" got into the lexicon. The end of WW1 "Armistice Day" was a reason for joy actually. The fact that it has morphed into a more inclusive day of honoring and remembering all veterans may have diluted the reason for the "Happy" somewhat, and I agree that now it does seem rater inappropriate.

 

There are a lot of clueless people here in this North America. Some people just don't get it. When I was in highschool here in Canada I would see students walk around with many poppies attached all over their clothes and shoes.. They want to make a somber occasion into a funny gag. HaHa look at me i'm completely covered in poppies...Bunch of dumb asses!


But these "Happy vets day" people are probably the same people who click "like" in response to your facebook post that someone you loved just died. The intentions are there, but how it cames out is just innapropriate...

 

I can't recall anyone saying this to me before, maybe they have and it just didn't click, but someone said it to me yesterday after I read this thread, and because I am sure this made me more sensitive to it, it immediately caught my attention. She's a classmate, and she sent a private message to me saying, "Happy Veterans Day," and she posted a message on her page saying, "I hope everyone is having a Happy Veterans Day......" The "happy" really caught my attention, and it also bothered me that she was saying it yesterday, I assume because she had the day off, instead of on the actual day.

I almost said something, and then decided it would just sound a little negative in that semi-public manner. I posted my own tribute to veterans on my page on Veterans Day, and I know she was being supportive in her own way yesterday, so I just gritted my teeth - and logged off before the temptation got the best of me...

 

I think that most folks, those who havent served, really don't understand what its all about. Its just another day, where we vets get to strut around in various pieces of uniform, get a small discount on dinner, and everyone else gets that day (or the following Monday) off, provided they are gov't or bank employees. So most folks really don't know what to say, since there's no "Happy Holidays" or "Happy Halloween" or "Merry Christmas" banners plastered everywhere for Veterans' Day. Personally, I don't say much of anything to anyone that I normally wouldn't, unless that person happens to have a military background, and then I simply say "thank you", and shake their hand. Trying to explain it to someone who hasn't lived it, or lived in very close proximity to it, is very much akin to trying to explain the camaraderie and bonds of brotherhood that draw all servicemen/women together, why we can start brawls with other branches, but should a civilian try to step in, we're all together and woe betide the civvie who threw the first punch! Its something that can't be explained, just experienced. So when I hear/read someone saying/typing "Happy Veteran's Day", I just smile and carry on. I guess, if one thinks about it, it *is* a happy day, honoring our military men and women. Memorial Day is the one that really gets under my skin, with all the "hey, its Memorial Day, come buy some crap from us" sales and cookouts and backyard football games....while the local cemeteries are packed with vets paying their respects to fallen comrades. So, in my opinion, civilians can say whatever they want about Veteran's Day. But do NOT throw a "happy" in front of Memorial Day, and make sure to doff your hat in respect to those who died for the freedom to grill cheap frozen burgers and (ironically) bratwurst.

 

I think it's because saying "Merry Veterans' Day" would sound stupid.

Seriously, though, I agree with Gaines that Clementine pretty much nailed it. I do believe that most people are trying to be sincere, but don't take the time to think about what they are saying or typing. However, I also believe that our society has developed a tendency towards superficiality which plays into this phenomenon as well.

 

That must be why we had WW1 and WW2 then.

 

I searched the depths of my sarcasm and could not find a big enough vessel to compose a reply to VB. You have hit the nail on the head.........Thank You, of course this would have been a message better suited to a "Reputation Note"; however, all I had were salutes.