Mother of dead soldier accusation...

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Mary Kirkland, mother of the late Army Spc. Derrick Kirkland, on Sunday's "Up with Chris Hayes" devoted to Memorial Day.   Her shirt reads, "Mother Against War."  Her son committed suicide after being redeployed to Afghanistan though he had made a number of suicide attempts.  "Military killed my son."

Everything about this program was painful, uplifting, and educational.  It included Joe Biden's personal and heart-breaking words to Gold Star families.  The entire, 5 minute clip from Rachel Maddow show was posted on TGB.

Ron and I watch these MSNBC programs quasi-religiously. To keep up daily, it's Rachel Maddow.  For more depth--intelligent, literate  discourse among educated people of many colors--we watch Chris Hayes (recorded on DVR). All of the segments appear online if you do not have cable.

Usually discomforted by holidays, I had a new realization that three-day ones are especially difficult in retirement.  It is all I can do to keep track of days of the week, unmarked as they are by regular scheduling of that past life of work, the third day throws me off.

Babysat Friday night.  Elie, youngest
granddaughter, examines my earring.  We try to get photos of her cute face minus posing but she's too wise to our efforts.  

Friday was typical one of multiple climates in Portland. Over on the other coast Xtreme English, another cloud fancier, shot a great photo from a parking lot in D.C.  Mine is moment I'm about to jump into the car after dinner and pleasant stroll in the sun-- never seen pink poppies before--on Mississippi Avenue.  A gentrifiying neighborhood where, according to my daughter, people are thinner and more expensively dressed than Alberta Street, an earlier gentrifier.   Both areas were predominantly African American until a few years ago.

Reading Sunday New York Times a day late; it's Monday now.  Front page photo of Army officer in Afghanistan walking through pink poppy field while on patrol.