> Speaking entirely for myself, if US memorial day is just "a holiday"
> to you, as you seem to imply, then I may well not want to hear about
> it either. If it happened to be the top day of remembrance for the US
> then I may well be interested in knowing why.

Several points:

First, in the US, both Memorial Day and Veteran's Day (nee
Armistice Day)(AKA Remembrance Day elsewhere on  Earth)
have NO specific meaning in the US- i.e., the general association
is with a 3-day weekend as opposed to any actual meaning (for
many; I imagine for veterans and military service members the
experience is rather different).  This is from the POV of a rather
young man; I'm 26, and I can't say I remember being instructed
upon the origin of either event at any point during my schooling.
In fact, I had to look up the origin of Memorial Day: post Civil
War remembrance of the fallen, as opposed to one particular
event.

Second, I suspect the fact that the average American barely
has knowledge of any such events may have to do with our
fairly bloody history; I daresay Gallipoli was probably the
first time that many ANZAC soldiers died at one time.
Compare that with, say, the battle of Gettysburg during our
Civil War where 50000 died (all of whom were, by definition,
American), and you'll start to see why casualty numbers have
such a low impact in the headlines today.

Third, no real effort is made in the US today to educate the
public as to the "true" history of such events(whatever that is).
I doubt more
than a scant handful of Americans not actively learning about
the event in a history class could give a date to even so
infamous an event as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, let alone
more specific information such as approximate number
killed or significance to our overall involvement in the war.

All in all, Russell, you should know that the US has NO
such thing- as late, of course, a certain day in the early
autumn has acquired a level of reverence, but we'll see where
that is in 90 years.

Mike H.

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist