Now They Understand what Memorial Day is About

 

Today was Memorial Day, so my physical workout was a long bike ride which had occasion to encounter not one, but two Memorial Day parades, one for my own hamlet of residence and the other one, which stepped off three hours earlier, for the adjoining hamlet.

They had the usual marching groups, including but not limited to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Fire Department, VFW, Knights of Columbus, and the local high school marching band.  Because the local high school draws from both hamlets, the marching band did a double header and marched in both Memorial Day parades.

Each parade stepped off from its respective staging area in a shopping center parking lot, each marched along the road to its hamlet's respective veteran's memorial, at which each parade concluded with a memorial program recognizing the sacrifices of the fallen servicemen (and at least one servicewoman).

I attended the second ceremony, after which I struck up a conversation with a woman with whom I share a number of mutual acquaintances.  Her daughter, who plays clarinet in the high school marching band, came up to us after the ceremony.  She and her bandmates all stood at attention during each of the ceremonies; she was somewhat dismayed at the longwindedness of the speakers at the first ceremony, which lasted nearly 45 minutes.  The second ceremony was about half of that duration.

The daughter commented to her mother that, having stood at solemn attention, she understood the significance of Memorial Day in a way much unappreciated by many of the crowd of onlookers.  It is quite likely that the experience will have made a lifetime impression upon this fine young lady.

Another suggestion I heard was that those who will be lighting up their barbecues for Memorial Day should consider placing an empty chair at the picnic table, in recognition of the soldier who will not be joining the repast.

Delegation, Bloomberg Style

Speaking as the holder of a hard-earned MBA degree, I will note that the process of delegation implicitly entails a trade-off:  When you delegate, you free yourself from the burdens of the task, but, in return, you give up many of your personal choices and preferences as to how the task will be done.  Good managers understand this, and, in delegating, must decide which of the specifications for the task are really, really important, and which specifications are a matter of personal taste or happenstance.

In the Woodside section of the New York City Borough of Queens is Doughboy Park, which features a bronze statue honoring/memorializing those who put on the uniform to serve in World War I.  A fitting and proper memorial in all respects.

But, like all public monuments, Doughboy Park needs periodic maintenance and upkeep.  And, like most governmental units these days, the New York City Parks Department is in a budgetary crunch, and the upkeep of Doughboy Park was assigned a low priority.

The solution:  A group of community volunteers, including some veterans, got approval from the Parks Department to spruce up Doughboy Park.

And now, the Parks Department is complaining that the volunteers painted the park with the wrong shade of green! 

I do agree that it would not be the shade of green I personally would choose for the purpose.  But it is beautiful, the Park is far better off having been painted, and some volunteers were kept off the streets and out of trouble for a few days.  What's there to not like about it?

But what else can be expected of a city whose CEO wants to impose his own choices upon the population?

I hope that the new paint which the Parks Department will procure will not contain too much sugar!