One bourbon, one scotch, and one mav

(Now with Extra-Vile Swear Action. TSM would be proud.)

I whine about holidays that close stores pretty much non-stop. Christmas music drives me fucking batty. I never remember anybody’s birthday and rarely even remember in time to get my mom a card for mother’s day. It could be easily said that I hate holidays.

So why in the fucking hell should I rant - me, my liberal, whiny ass - about VETERANS’ day, of all things. You say “But Mav, you don’t even like the fuckin army!” That’s right, I don’t. But somebody has to have the balls to defend this shithole we live in. It’s our shithole, and it’s a nice shithole. I’m not particularly fond of it, but I know a lot of people that are, and somebody’s got to stand up for it.

People fight, and people die, over this whole freedom thing. Not like we really have that here, but it’s about as close as you can get. Plus, Veterans’ Day is is one of the few holidays that ISN’T a corporate sanctuary.

* Christmas: Tom Lehrer covered this. I couldn’t do a better job, ever.
* Easter: Religious my ass. I always spend the day eating jelly beans.
* Valentine’s Day: Victoria’s Secret probably sells 90% of their shit during Xmas and Valentine’s Day. (Not that I’d ever bash on Victorias Secret, but hey…) Plus this is pretty much the thing that put Hallmark on the fucking map.
* 4th of July: I know guys that run fireworks stands. Those people make some HUGE bank. At least it’s all individuals, mostly, and not some goddamn chain motherfuckers.
* fucking Memorial Day: sports, summer shit, et cetera. God Damn, even fucking Memorial Day is all corporatized for your money’s protection.

Veteran’s Day is none of those things. It’s not corporate. It’s not religious. It’s one holiday that everybody can get behind.

And I’m just a touch pissed that WSU was closed and the UofI was not. At first it started off as just another “But dammit now I have to go to school” day, but the more i walked around campus - saw Army, Navy & Marines in their Class A’s for the event at noon - it really started to piss me off.

We give these guys so much shit - piles upon piles of it, treat them like second-class citizens sometimes. Oh, and by the way, you’ll need to go die for our stupid idiotic ignorant country too. Nothing personal, just business.

And here at the UofI, we can’t spare one fucking worthless day for these guys to SHOW THEM SOME GODDAMN RESPECT, to honor the guys that died so that we could go get our whiney, liberal-arts degrees and give props to the guys that are wearing the uniform and still trying to get degrees in three years, not knowing if they’ll get called up (especially with this Iraq thing going on.)

Guess if it’s not an official, corporate-sanctioned holiday, it just doesn’t matter. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m in the wrong state.

Yeah, I’m a touch pissed.