Streetalk: What does Memorial Day mean?

No Show: There is no Memorial Day to me. I love my country, but am I to memorialize all my brothers I lost? I watched them get shot in front of me. Memorial Day for me, brother, there is none. I got my own Memorial Day in my heart. I’m pretty mixed about Memorial Day. I live and breathe it every day. It’s a delicate situation. The parade I had was getting shit on. That’s Memorial Day.

Bill: A day we honor the people willing to put aside personal interest for their country. It’s become a long weekend for most people. Hopefully this country will realize again that when you send kids to war, you have a responsibility to take care of them afterward. We’re not doing that. Honor the dead by supporting the living. Go to a VA Hospital and visit these guys. I was a paramedic in the Air Force. I had 47 combat rescues in Vietnam.

Professor: I’m not going to a Memorial Day parade. When I came back from Vietnam, the first woman I talked to told me I was a baby killer and an Uncle Tom. If I do anything, I would go to Arlington Cemetery. Twenty-seven friends there. I counted. I was in Kilo Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine. I was treated pretty bad and I’m still treated pretty bad. I wouldn’t tell anybody for years that I was a Vietnam vet. A parade, I don’t want to participate.