Today is Memorial Day, the federal holiday where U.S. men and women who have died in military service are remembered. Federal and state offices are closed, as well as post offices, schools, financial markets, and banks. Alternate side of the street parking rules are suspended and mass transit is running on a Sunday scheduled (check MTA.info)
Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at the Soliders' and Sailors Monument at West 89th Street and Riverside Drive this morning, and then he will march in the Whitestone Veterans Memorial Association Service and Parade and the the Little Neck- Douglaston Memorial Parade. There are other parades today, and there are still Fleet Week demonstrations around town.
As it does every year, the Post has run Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V—"If we are marked to die, we are enow/ To do our country loss; and if to live/ The fewer men the greater share of honour./ God’s will! I pray thee wish not one man more." The NY Times' editorial notes, "After a decade of two wars, there are many lost lives to mourn. But nature is doing all it can to comfort. Life, it seems to be saying, continues on from summer to summer. There are memories and sadness, but also a verdancy that makes us celebrate what we have."
And the Daily News runs photos of the 14 NY State members of the military (13 men, one woman) who lost their lives this year, quoting Emerson, "When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can!"
