MEMORIAL: An Era reader shared some thoughts about the significance of Memorial Day.
Our readers writes, “With regards to the article titled “To Many Americans, Memorial Day has lost its meaning,” p. A-14 (May 31, 2017); isn’t the expression ‘Happy Memorial Day’ an oxymoron? Why associate the words ‘happy’ with ‘memorial’?
“Along the line of this topic, perhaps the paraphrase quote from the book “The First Heroes” (about the Doolittle raid on Tokyo-WWII) by Craig Nelson, p. 336 says it well: ‘Military duty is one of those experiences that most people, unless they have served, don’t have a parallel experience to relate to.’”
Our reader also gave kudos to a letter by Lt. T. Hardy that ran May 31 in the Other Voices section on Page A-7.
Hardy stated, “One man’s observation on Memorial Day. It takes one person to be respectful and a gang to be disrespectful.”
TURTLES: We were driving on a quiet road around midday a few days ago, when we came across a turtle crossing the road.
Upon seeing our car pull around the bend, the turtle stopped dead center in our lane. We stopped, hoping it would keep crossing, but no such luck.
We weren’t sure there was any way for us to help the turtle from getting hit by another vehicle — common sense tells us not to touch wild animals — so we drove around it into the other lane. (Making sure first that there were no vehicles coming.)
We kept wondering about the turtle after that. Could we have helped it cross?
We looked it up.
According to the Massachusetts-based Turtle Rescue League, if you see a turtle crossing the road, you can help it.
But make sure you aren’t putting yourself in danger by getting into traffic.
The league suggests pulling fully off the road with your hazard lights on, being mindful of other drivers.
To pick up a small turtle, hold onto both sides of the shell behind its front legs, and keep it low to the ground while carrying it in case it gets free of your grip and falls.
The league does not encourage people to pick up snapping turtles, which are larger with long tails, as they are more aggressive. Instead, push it from behind with a blunt — not sharp — object.
Help it go in the direction it was heading; don’t turn it around.
