What’s become the official kick-off of summer, when you can officially start wearing white again and and buy a mattress cheap in a big blow-out holiday sale (are mattresses ever not on sale?) is supposed to be about remembrance. It’s right there in the name: Memorial.
For a score of families in Uvalde, in Buffalo, in Parkland, in Newtown, in Columbine, in Orlando, in Pittsburgh, in Charleston, and in scores of towns and cities in between, picnics and baseball aren’t going to feature. For some, the wounds are going to be too raw to even note that this isn’t a regular Monday, if they even know what day of the week it is. For others, half-scarred hearts will threaten to tear again under the weight of it all.
Memorial Day in America.