90 – Commemorating Memorial Day

In this episode, Peter and Sonny discuss the true meaning of Memorial Day and why it remains one of the most important yet misunderstood American holidays. They reflect on the sacrifices made by U.S. military service members, the distinction between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and the values of patriotism, freedom, leadership and service that shaped the United States. The conversation also explores military family sacrifice, Arlington National Cemetery, American culture, civic tradition, and the importance of teaching future generations about history, national identity and gratitude. This episode offers a thoughtful discussion on remembrance, responsibility, freedom and what it means to honor those who gave everything for their country. 

 The episode closes with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s hope for America.
  

Main Discussion Topics

► The difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day 

► The history and origins of Decoration Day 

► Military sacrifice and American freedom 

► Arlington National Cemetery and remembrance traditions 

► Patriotism, civic responsibility, and national identity 

► Family traditions surrounding Memorial Day weekend 

► Why honoring service members still matters today

The full audiovisual version of this episode is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-a5IRTSi0DU 

“The Obvious Podcast” is a production of ABC Florida East Coast Chapter. Unless otherwise stated, all content reflects the opinions of the guests and hosts.

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Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast, episode number 90. Wow. I'm blown away every time I say that episode number out. My name is Sunny Maken, the CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Peter Dyga 0:22

And I'm Peter Dyga, president and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast.

Sonny Maken 0:26

You are listening or watching the Obvious Podcast, where all opinions expressed are our own, unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga 0:31

Love the show, subscribe on any major podcast platform, or watch us in action on YouTube, follow the Obvious Podcast on Instagram, X and TrueSocial, and now on TikTok. All the links you need are in the show notes. Reach out to us anytime at the obvious@ abceflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. Happy Friday, Sonny.

Sonny Maken 0:56

Happy Friday. And not only.

Peter Dyga 0:57

Yeah, what's that? It's a long weekend. Yeah, long weekend. Happy Friday before a holiday weekend. Right. So Do you have big plans for Memorial Day? Picnicking and pooling and leaching and all that good stuff. The official start to summer. That's right. That's what people say. In America. It's kind of cool. And in Florida, it's always summer. So anyway, we want to spend some time about that because it's a significant all holidays are, but profoundly misunderstood, right?

Sonny Maken 1:20

Like nobody really knows the order.

Peter Dyga 1:21

It's one of my pet peeves. Yeah. So yes.

Sonny Maken 1:24

All right.

Peter Dyga 1:24

You don't have a lot of pet peeves, so let's get into this one at all. It's Memorial Day, people. It's not Veterans Day. It's not Veterans Day. So uh the real purpose of this holiday, and we have a separate one for Veterans Day, which is to honor anybody who serves. Right. The purpose of Memorial Day, and again, I get it. Most holidays are a long extended time with your family or to barbecue or go to the beach, but uh you know, try to slow down and and reflect on the purpose of this holiday, which is um recognizing the ultimate sacrifice paid by 1.1 million service members uh in the United States uh armed services uh over the course of our country's history from the Revolutionary War up until uh today, who have given their lives in defense of freedom. That's a sobering number, isn't it? 1.1 million people. It's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. So anyway, the real purpose of this, and uh we did a little research beforehand to make sure we had our history right. And when it you know it's actually relatively the name the way we call it Memorial Day is relatively new and recognized as a federal holiday, maybe even relatively. Trevor Burrus, Jr. So how did it start?

Sonny Maken 2:29

Like what's the history of it? So Well, we were looking beforehand. What is it called? The Decoration Day. And it was established May 5th, 1868, by a General John Logan to honor Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. And he wanted to do that by decorating their graves with flowers.

Peter Dyga 2:47

Which even today, a lot of people in veterans uh organizations and whatnot go out and put flags, flags, and flowers, and yeah.

Sonny Maken 2:54

It officially became a federal holiday in 1971. That's fairly modern history. Yeah.

Peter Dyga 2:59

So in any event, yeah, it's just long been pet peeve of mine that, you know, even you'll see it even in the news and in the media and uh popular culture. But um it's not the same as Veterans Day, as as honorable as that is. Um it's you know, these people have given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. So that's that's what we're honoring on Memorial Day weekend.

Sonny Maken 3:19

Yeah. So the reason he picked May was because then the flowers would be in bloom. Interesting. That's interesting, right? But that's why he picked May. And uh and I didn't I didn't realize this. You said 1.1 million had passed away. 620,000 of them were in the Civil War. Oh, almost half. More than half. Yeah.

Peter Dyga 3:36

We're in the Civil War alone.

Sonny Maken 3:37

Wow. And to and if you think back to sort of how low our population was back then as a country, as a as a percentage of population, that's a massive number.

Peter Dyga 3:48

Yeah.

Sonny Maken 3:48

Right.

Peter Dyga 3:49

So what are your some of your family traditions, Sonny, on Memorial Day? Anything in particular over the years? I don't know. Same thing as a lot of other people. And because it also is kind of like the the the bookmarks, if you will, of the beginning and end of summer. Right.

Sonny Maken 4:08

Well we do we do, you know, when we would pray before the meals, we would thank um Thank God for our freedom and our armed forces, you know, because they pay a tremendous price. And these people, the ones we're remembering on Memorial Day, they pay the ultimate price, obviously.

Peter Dyga 4:22

But you we do remember that. That would be a be that's a beautiful way, and it would be an easy way for anybody listening to uh for for themselves and for their family and those they're sharing, uh whatever, however they're celebrating. Um to reinstate, if you will, yeah some of the significance of uh the season. So I love that. Yeah. It's a great one. What do you do in Chicago? You grew up in Chicago, right? So would you go to the would you go to the lake or we had a little beach.

Sonny Maken 4:54

Probably as big as this conference room. Um All of Chicago. I mean your family had like a traditional we had a traditional spot we would go to, which was very tiny and uh and the water was dark and murky and you know.

Peter Dyga 5:09

The rest isn't beach?

Sonny Maken 5:11

Excuse my ignorance for not knowing that. Well, there's portions of beach and there's portions that aren't. They were just the it hits the uh the seawall. Drywall or the sea without the seawall. But there's portions of the beach. There's and their their name, the Oak Street Beach is a famous one. Okay. Downtown. But like usually Saturdays was the barbecue, and on Sundays we'd go to the beach. Any traditional food? Uh Polish sausage. Polish yeah, Polish. My dad loved Kilbasa. That's great. You know, because Chicago has the the highest population of Polish people outside of Poland.

Peter Dyga 5:40

No way.

Sonny Maken 5:41

Yeah. Okay. So Polish sausage is a very popular Polish. Like I, when I was in high school and in middle school, Kasimir Polaski Day was an actual school holiday. And it was some like famous Polish freedom fighter. And it was a day off from school for us, but Polaski Day. They had a huge parade downtown and and uh we're in the in the Polish section of town.

Peter Dyga 6:02

So that's cool.

Sonny Maken 6:03

It's weird, like how many Polish traditions you had uh growing up.

Peter Dyga 6:06

And I come to Florida and they were like, it's a kebasa on a like a uh bun? Yeah, yeah. Making me hungry.

Sonny Maken 6:14

I think about it. Polish uh like in and I've taken you to Portillos in Orlando, uh-huh, which is a Chicago chain, and they do they do Polish sausages there as well. Um every hot dog place in Chicago has it, and Chicago's a ton of hot dog places and a ton of like Polish Polish kalbasas and sausages and things like that. So we used to uh do that uh uh at our barbecue. My and my dad loved it. I mean, I just liked regular hot dogs, but my dad's a huge Polish sausage fan. And so we would do that, we'd go to the boo uh beach, and you know, and it's just I mean, I I grew up knowing the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Like I I understood that uh part. Um I'm not even sure why or or who explained it to me, but I always understood the distinction. Um but I'm so shocked. I have friends who are veterans now who will post on Memorial Day and sort of make it clear, you know, because obviously gotten a little more attention, I think, yeah, recent years. Because so many of them have gone to um Iraq and the Middle East and fought wars there. And it's been it's been interesting because you you especially the whole family focus and the barbecues and the pool, you think about how many lives have been changed forever. Sure. Because their loved one is missing. Right.

Peter Dyga 7:34

Well, for some people this might seem like a triviality. There's a reason we have two different ones. Yeah, they're both worthy of their own separate celebrations.

Sonny Maken 7:41

Absolutely. Um but I find, you know, I mean, uh obviously I have a lot of veteran friends who uh serve one of my best friends, I don't know, eight tours like between Iraq and Afghanistan, and then he joined as a as a contractor and went back a multiple times. And um the stories that I would hear, you know, from him about the things that these guys face. And the things that would drive me nuts. Like I remember this guy, my one of my best friends, I've known this kid since high school, right? And he's coming back from uh Iraq, and he's flying from Iraq to uh Ramstein in Germany, and he's on this big military plane, and the guy next to him is cold. So he gives him his blanket, which is a government initial blanket. So he gets to Ramstein, he has to give the blanket back, but the guy's gone, right? He got billed 80 bucks for that super blanket, right? And I was like, Are you serious? Like it just but it bothered me so much that this is how they were treating our soldiers. You remember that famous speech from Donald Rumsfeld when he was in Iraq? You go to war with the army, you have not the army you're given. Because some guy was talking about how they didn't have enough armored vehicles. Like, I'm like, bro, then why don't you go fight? You know? That kind of stuff from bureaucrats just always has driven me nuts. Sure. Because they're the ones taking no risk. It's not their kids that are going to war. You know, and then to say crap like that anyway. Again, our famous tangent has shown up. So anyway, what were your sort of uh Memorial Day traditions growing up?

Peter Dyga 9:08

Um, you know, very, very similar. Um I mean, obviously I think I, you know, because it sticks with me today and is one of my pet peeves, but uh obviously we emphasized, you know, the significance of this holiday. It was those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. So but we would celebrate, you know, much like the rest of the country would, which is, you know, with barbecues and a day at the beach, perhaps, and uh our traditional, you know, meals are hot dogs and hamburgers, ribs maybe, um, corn on the cob, max salad, you know. Very corn on the cob on a grill. It's a one of the best things. So in any event, great memories, you know, as as most of our holidays are. But um in any event, stop for a moment, pause for a moment uh this holiday weekend, enjoy it with your family and all those great traditions. Um help everybody around you recognize that there are there are people, you know, and I know there's a lot of controversy this day. I don't I don't understand why it's controversial, but you know uh I don't know about this country and what it stands for. I don't get that at all. But you know, like, you know, why should we even there's probably some people out there. Yeah. Why should we even celebrate the people who sacrificed the ultimate? But um fine, let's have that conversation. Send us an email at the obvious at abc isflorida.com because um I think the world's a better place because of the United States and who we are and the leadership even today, you know, that we represent in the world. Yep. And it's not always convenient or it's not always easy uh or popular, you know, to uh to actual think about, you know, and I can think of where we're at right now today with some of the stuff that's going on around the world. You know, you remember we did an episode. There's an awful lot of people that uh for you know, again, signed up, uh went and worked voluntarily, uh and for the most part over the course of our history, and sacrificed everything for the the the person next to them, you know, in the foxhole or for the purpose and the the greater good, yeah, if you will. And I I'm still a believer in that.

Sonny Maken 11:15

Do you remember we did an episode I don't even know how long ago it was, but we were talking about how for some reason when it comes to politics, people conflate awareness with expertise all the time. They think they're experts just because they're aware of something. It's worth repeating. They conflate uh awareness with expertise. And and I said to you, I remember I remember in that episode saying to you, I don't know any other arena in life where people do that, and there's one more, and it's sports. How everybody's an expert when it comes to sports, even though just because they're aware of it, they understand. But uh besides sports and politics, there's no real other arena where people just are like, yep, I'm an expert on this, so let me give you my let me pontificate. And I'm certainly not saying we're experts uh on any of this stuff, but the thing that I was really kind of thinking about in terms of memorial day, I don't know if you've ever been to Arlington National Cemetery.

Peter Dyga 12:08

I have.

Sonny Maken 12:08

And I was not there on Memorial Day, but I've I've been there a couple of times, and it was probably the most sobering place I think I've ever been to, certainly in this country. Now I've never seen the the graveyards in in um Normandy, thank you. Me neither. I'd like to someday. I would love to see that. But just standing there and just seeing these tombstones at the It is sobering.

Peter Dyga 12:31

It's also beautiful in its own way, isn't it? That we care enough, you know, to people like this. Uh the tomb of the unknown soldier, yeah. Which again is somebody who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and we don't even know who uh in the case of that tomb. Yeah, I know. And that's a beautiful um it's a beautiful place to visit when you're there at Arlington, I think. What does the Bible define as love?

Sonny Maken 12:52

Do you remember?

Peter Dyga 12:53

The Bible define as love? True love. Um well I'm gonna use I'm a little more of acquainted with Aquinas. Okay. How does Aquinas define true love? Uh it's willing the good of the other for the other's sake. All right.

Sonny Maken 13:05

So the Bible says uh one who's willing to lay his life down for his brother, right? Same no greater love than this. No greater love than this. And one who's willing to lay his life down for his brother. And when I was at Arlington, that's all I could think about. There were all these people just willing to die. And you hear stories, right? Like I mean, I've had friends tell me about um guys that they were serving with who saw a grenade and jumped on it so that they could save the lives of their brothers, right? And it's just it's such an incredible testament to their character and to their um sense of sacrifice and greater good and and love of love for this country.

Peter Dyga 13:42

Yeah. So if you haven't been, that would be a great uh uh trip for your family someday or you know, to be able to do it. So you take your kids there. I'll take your kids to understand. For sure. Visit the tomb of the unknown soldier. Yeah. Um, and I'm gonna tell you another little inside tip that uh a former father-in-law of mine that made me aware of many, many decades ago. So there's a thing in Washington as well during summer only. It's free, uh called Eighth and Eye. Have you ever heard of it? Yeah. So it's at the I lived in DC. I'm not sure. Well, it's at the intersection of South uh Southeast uh Eighth and I. Okay. Uh it's where the oldest marine barracks in the country are located. Really? And during summer, they do one on Tuesday night, I think, and one on either Friday or Saturday night. They do a parade at the marine barracks at Eighth and I, and then they also do one at the Iwo Jima or somewhere there at the Iwo Jima's an unbelievable place. But um I mean it's you know, it's the you've probably seen these. It's the old revolutionary uh drum and bugle corps, and it's the rifle corps, and it's the and it's yeah, it's and it's free every summer during uh in Washington, D.C. A great way to kick off the summer with Memorial Day and these parades. So anyway. So if you're there now this week, yeah. If you're there, go check it out.

Sonny Maken 14:52

Go check out Ape and I. I've never I've never even heard of it. Like that's amazing to me.

Peter Dyga 14:56

Spectacular. So anyway, if you got a little patriotic little whatever in you, which I think most people in construction and in ABC do, I mean the flag for crying out loud is in our logo. So uh how many people have over the years have told you uh how much they admire the fact that this organization still starts most meetings of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sonny Maken 15:19

I hear it all the time. So I grew up it was so funny. Like in in middle school and uh in high school, every morning we did the Pledge of Allegiance. And my kids never did it once. That is nuts. Right? I never did it allegedly. When I was at the graduation um a few weeks ago in Tallahassee, I think these things have an impact?

Peter Dyga 15:40

You know, no wonder that people don't, you know, I don't know. People are like, well, you know, why should we honor the people who gave their life for this country? Because this country stood for well, you know, if you're not being taught these things or or it's unbelievable. It's crazy.

Sonny Maken 15:54

It's unbelievable. I mean, nobody has done more to raise the standard of living of how people live than this country, and given the freedoms that this country has, you know. My parents are like blown away by the previous second.

Peter Dyga 16:07

See Marco Rubios when uh he was uh wearing the um press secretary's hat and he gave a briefing in the White House briefing room and about what uh I forget what the exact question did. Where they asked him about maybe we can put that up as a close to this session. Okay. Uh the question was I think what a what America stood for. Oh, wow. And he gave just a spectacular response, which I think is very fitting. Yeah. Uh, you know, on this uh entrance into uh this this holiday weekend, uh memorializing those that have given the ultimate sacrifice precisely for the definition that Marco Rubio lays out as an immigrant son, you know, to this country and uh any event. I think you'll find it moving. So if we can, Mr. Produce.

Sonny Maken 16:55

Let's end with that. Let's end with uh that response from the I do want to say I do want to say thank you to to all the military families, you know, who have um sacrificed uh their loved one for this country. I mean, this is official, this is not our opinion. Thanks to you. This is our opinion, but this is also the organization's opinion. We're grateful for the sacrifice, and we're grateful for um what your loved one has done to bring it up.

Peter Dyga 17:16

And this weekend, for one small moment, we set it aside to thank you for that sacrifice.

Sonny Maken 17:22

So All right, we're gonna end with Marco, but thank you for joining us and have a wonderful weekend.

Peter Dyga 17:27

And for comments, feel free to send us an email anytime at the obvious at abc eastflorida.com. Happy Memorial Day. Ciao. Take care.

Reporter 17:36

I I gotta ask you, what is your hope for America at a time such as this?

Marco Rubio 17:41

My hope for America?

Reporter 17:43

And personally, deal with that.

Marco Rubio 17:45

Yeah, look, I mean, my hope for America is what it's always been. I think it's the hope I hope we all share. We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. Where you're not limited by the circumstances of your birth, by the color of your skin, by your ethnicity, but frankly, it's a place where you are able to overcome challenges and achieve your full potential. I think that should be the goal of every country in the world, frankly. But I think in the US, we're not perfect. Our history is not one of perfection, but it's still better than anybody else's history. And ours is a story of perpetual improvement. Each generation has left the next generation of Americans freer, more prosperous, safer. And that is our goal as well. But it is a unique and exceptional country, and as we come upon this 250-year anniversary, I think we have a lot to learn and be primitive in our history. It is one of perpetual and continuous improvement, where each generation has done its part to bring us closer to fulfilling the vision that the founders of this country had upon its own.