The PO is closed, the banks, too. The schoolkids are home watching their Wii consoles.

I have lots of work to do and am getting through it, even though it is a national holiday. That's life for me lately.

I remember where I was when I got the news in 1968. I was in uniform and it was about 100 degrees F in the shade, and there was very little shade.

Somebody came over where we were slouched on the sandbag wall smoking damp Lucky Strikes and said something like, "They shot Martin Luther King."

We didn't find out that the shot was fatal until the next day when the news arrived.

That day, the next one, my platoon killed five or six VC in a scrap that only lasted about twenty seconds. We took no casualties. Lucky for us.

Nobody will remember those poor unfortunate insurgents, except at Vietnam's annual day of celebration when they lay their wreaths and salute their dead.

Life is a fleeting experience. If you are famous, and a good man like he was, you will be celebrated in death more than life. Martin Luther King is still being lamblasted by certain nut cases on the fringe right, but we laugh at those losers. We know he deserves his day of remembrance, as do all our national heroes.

Furthermore, I say we must remember our heroes 365 days a year. We have come a long way since March of 1968 and memphis.

We still have some distance to go.