Memorial Day 2005 is especially annoying for me and, I hope, other veterans. It's bad enough I've had to endure the traditional lip service given to remembering those Americans who died in the service of our country from politicians who curry favor with illegal aliens, including presidents who lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, I've also had to put up with a highly disrespectful TV commercial from Ford Motor Co. With the opening strains of "America the Beautiful" in the background, this commercial, which has been airing non-stop during the past two weeks, Ford pummels its viewers with this simple message: "Exercise your freedom to run down to your local Ford dealer and buy a new car." Oh, I know what you're going to say. American holidays that were created for entirely different reasons decades ago have become excuses to run multi-day sales to encourage lemming-like consumers to buy just about everything, most of which these days is made in China. So why can't I just get over it? Because I can't, and I won't.