Remembering Our Fallen
By Albert B. Kelly
In case you’ve been focused on other things lately, I want
to take this opportunity to offer a gentle reminder that Memorial Day is coming
up on Monday, May 28th. It’s been 45 years since we’ve had a draft
so perhaps it is worth mentioning to the younger folks among us that Memorial
Day is celebrated to remember military service members who have died serving in
the line of duty.
I say this because as a country with an all-volunteer
military force, it is all too easy for our wars and armed conflicts to remain
out of sight and out of mind. This wasn’t always the case; a common draft
ensured that a cross-section of families was acutely aware not only of military
service, but of the ultimate price that might be paid in serving. Today, many
live their lives without much thought for those who have died in service to our
country.
Memorial Day calls us to remember. In Bridgeton, this will
include a program to honor World War I veterans at the Broad Street Cemetery.
This year’s program will have its own poignancy because it is the 100th
anniversary of “the war to end all wars”. The program will begin at 12 noon
courtesy of the Broad Street Cemetery Association and the Friends of Old Broad
Street Church.
The day will begin at 9:00am with the flag being lowered to
half-staff at the Grand Army of the Republic memorial at the corner of West
Avenue and Broad Street. At 12 noon, the
flag will be raised from half-staff to full-staff which is protocol for the
day. There will be a 12 noon picnic at the Broad Street Church and those
attending are asked to bring whatever lunch they desire. During the picnic, members
of the Broad Street Cemetery Association and the Friends of Old Broad Street
Church will provide information about the church and the exhibits.
At 12:45pm, the program inside the church will begin. I am
grateful to be able to take part in the day’s observances and will be giving
brief remarks entitled “What the Flag Means to me.” Should any fall asleep
during my talk- which is always a possibility- Stanger’s WWI Band will perform
songs from the era. The program will also include WWI stories and stories of
our local veterans.
At 2:00pm, there will be a roll call of the 57 World War I veterans
buried at the Broad Street Cemetery and we will have the privilege of having
some of those names read by relatives of some of the veterans. Beyond that,
there will be an unfurling of a 20x30 foot flag by Eugene Hough of the Heritage
Flag Memorial Ceremony Project.
The day’s activities will come to a close at 3:00pm with the
Mead-Woodward VFW Post 1795 Honor Guard gun salute followed by the firing of
the Model 1848 Mt. Howitzer by Vietnam Veteran Steve Osborn, and Taps by Mr. Lou
Guinta. It will be a poignant day and I suspect that at some point during the
day, I will think of World War II veteran Warren Robinson and the fact that he
is missed in this community.
I encourage everyone to come out and participate, to learn, to
be moved. This is an opportunity to get your thoughts into a space that will
allow for reflection on what it means to serve and the price of our freedoms,
liberties, and way of life- something these fallen died protecting and ensuring.
For some, getting into this mental space can be hard because
in our polarized political climate, it has become difficult to separate
policies from the people charged with carrying out the policy. This has
resulted in a line of thought that implies that any criticism of the policy, (i.e.,
whether or not we should be in Iraq or Afghanistan), is the equivalent of not
supporting or honoring the troops, active or otherwise.
Separating the policy from the soldier will allow us to
properly recognize and honor the individual and the sacrifices he or she makes
even if we should find ourselves questioning the wisdom of civilian elected
officials at the highest levels of government. When we fail at separating the
two, some bad scar tissue is the result.
So let us leave politics and policy behind and honor our
fallen heroes. They answered when called and their sacrifice was real, pure, honest,
and extraordinarily personal. Our response to them should be the same.