Every Veterans Day, as a young man I would wonder about having a conversation at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Now as an older man, I wonder about having a conversation at the tomb of my Father...
This is a solemn day which has, over its 90 years, grown much more forgetful. Millions of Americans served with courage, and hundreds of thousands died with honor. Here's what my Father might whisper to me in the autumnal hush of Hillside, Illinois:
"I came to Chicago from Sicily at the turn of the century. Too young when war broke out in 1917, too old when the next war came in 1941. But this was sacred soil to immigrants like me, so I had to leave Momma and you boys to volunteer. The Army needed motor pool experts like me, so what else could I do?
"I'm still surprised how few people remember these wars and these dead. And how they forget so many of us were immigrants just like the ones they seem to hate today. Blood is blood. All our blood -- Whites, Blacks, Latinos -- spilled for the same reasons. Not for the speeches or the politicians. For one another, and the people we left back home. Can you tell me why so many folks today think only: Me?
"A few years back these cemeteries were busy with people and flowers and flags. Today -- well, I guess people aren't any worse, just busier. Of course, they wouldn't have so much to be busy with if a lot of these crosses weren't here. Which is another thing I don't understand -- why do some people want to take the crosses down, and call that 'the constitutional thing to do?'
"Oh, there's something else -- the way everyone is so angry about government helping with health care and inoculations. I didn't live long enough to have things like Social Security and Medicare be in effect, but I sure wish I had. We all need a little help sometime...."
If by this point in my imaginary conversation I had a few tears in my eyes, it would not only be for Dad. More for all of us. On a day like this when you think about these cemeteries -- if you think about them at all -- you kinda have to wonder about us. Are we and what we're always so busy doing actually worth what they did for us?
I'd guess sometimes some of us are. But a lot of trivial, tacky times we're not. Which makes this day a remarkably apt time to put down whatever we think is so important. And -- just like the President laying the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- we might place one of our own at the tombs of all the soldiers, past and present, that we know.
Then, getting back to what was so important, we might have a much better idea how to define important.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Moving!!
ReplyDeleteVery moving....lovely tribute!
ReplyDeleteJack,
ReplyDeleteA couple of comments: Veteran's Day is for all veterans, celebrated everywhere, including or especially for, those alive. Our own American Legion Post (largest in the world) had its usual ceremony today with a guest speaker recently retired from the Marines and having served in Iraq. Also, what has transpired in the last few days with our President'actions are a little mired in my mind. I would be interested in what your brother's thoughts are. One other comment, I believe that your father and my father and all those in the "greatest generation" who served might wonder about the latest influx of immigrants and their desires!
Jerry, I think you and my brother would be in almost total agreement. He shares your concerns about the President. I still look at it from the historical perspective -- every president makes day to day tactical errors, but it's the overall strategy that counts. So far I think his is a sound one. But God only knows, because few presidents have had these many problems all at once (not even Lincoln or FDR)
ReplyDelete