I ask you to take a few minutes to walk in my moccasins along a long dusty road. Please feel free to remove them and leave at any time.

The practice was encouraged by a General John Logan and Arlington National Cemetery was "decorated" officially on 30 May 1868 for the first time. The South refused to "decorate graves" on the same day.

The change to almost unity came to be by Public Law in 1971. Some Southern States to this day insist on separate days.

As a child, being out of school for the day, I knew it was not a day to play with my friends. At home we had a quiet day of listening to the radio, reading and conversation. Many stores were closed. If they were open Nana would not have let any shopping be done. I can not remember "Memorial Day Sales".

As a teen we had moved to a larger house and we did not realize there was a cemetery directly behind the houses across the street. The landscaping kept the cemetery out of sight.

It was Memorial Day and all were sleeping in. We got a rude awakening by a big bass drum. A parade of some organization was leaving the cemetery and paraded past our home to one of the larger parks where they had left their buses and cars.

We never connected having a barbecue with Memorial Day. Within the family we saw it as a day of reflection. We listened to tales of those recently and long gone. There was nothing to celebrate but remembering the departed.

This year our economy is having a rough time. My heart aches for those becoming jobless, homeless and those ripped off by con artists.

This is still NOT a reason for "Memorial Day Sales".

Until you stand at the open hole at Arlington National Cemetery and just above it is the person you promised your God to be with until death is in a metal box, sealed forever and in moments will disappear forever after the button is pushed on the contraption of metal and woven straps that holds the human remains of promises that will never be kept.

This is a day of memory for the brain; pain for the heart; and tears for the eyes.

There is no picnic. There is no shopping at any store for special bargains.

There is no reason to have "Veterans’ Day Sales" either in November.

America, get your priorities right and I’m sure the Great Spirit will let your trip down the long dusty road be easier.

Some of us must continue the road of life and our moccasins will pick up twigs and stones that makes us stop and remove the obstacles, then walk on.

You may be wearing heavy shoes, but must walk the same road.

My dusty road leads to the sunset where rest awaits.