We the People: Just another memorial?

Opinion

November 6, 2012

We the People: Just another memorial?

By Bob Hoyt Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Tue Nov 06, 2012, 01:37 PM CST

CROSSVILLE — Veteran’s Day, November 11, was first called WWI Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. Memorials to WWI are scattered across the country. Liberty Memorial in Kansas City is one of the more impressive and much visited. WWI was supposedly “the war to end all wars.”

Wars always result in casualties and produce patriotic vows that “they shall never be forgotten.” Some seniors living today had great-grandparents who were alive during the Civil War. Do they remember them, much less the war? More recent generations are gradually forgetting at least three more recent conflicts marked by memorials in many states. The Korean War memorial in Washington includes 19 stone infantrymen dressed in combat gear and advancing among strips of granite and juniper bushes that represent the rugged terrain of Korea. That war did not end decisively. We negotiated a line and left. Most of us, except perhaps the parents, widows and the maimed, are forgetting. That is human.

The WWII memorial is the last glorious memorial. That war had a clear purpose. The enemy was defined and those who fought were from all walks of life. The veterans are nearly gone now, but the memories of their accomplishments for freedom still permeate our national conscience. Those who search the Vietnam wall for a name are often stirred not by thoughts of triumph and glory but more by grief and fading memories of those who stood with them.

The struggle in Afghanistan and Iraq is our longest war. Those who survive come home by the plane-load, with honor but to few parades. What should memorialize the fallen in the Middle East and Persian Gulf? How could we mark our debt to them with a national monument after the drawn-out conflict ends in the far deserts? Should we build a memorial showing an unmanned drone sending a Hellfire missile into a huddled mass of armed, ignorant religious extremists in the bed of a battered pickup truck? Would a true memorial need miniature oil derricks to note the real cause of the conflict? Would it have the names of those in the Congress who voted for war and those who voted against war?

What memorial might we build to the brave fighters who were hit by IEDs or who dropped from helicopters in strange and distant lands and fought with automatic weapons and grenades in darkness and were gone before dawn, taking their dead and wounded with them? Many secrets are locked in the vaults of intelligence agencies, as in the Cold War. But a giant door marked TOP SECRET would not do. Perhaps the hope of World War I as “a war to end wars” would be better.

How great it would be if we could make a door with a giant exclamation mark and inscribed with: “It ended here. They fought the last wars of humanity. The living who pass through this door, in a world unthreatened by religious insanity and political devolution, should remember the debt as well as the gift. Even as we forget the faces of these final warriors, this memorial will honor what they gave to their heritage and to our survival for as long as American freedom endures.”

Text Only

Opinion

TIDBITS: All this technology is killing me
When technology works as it should, our lives go so much easier than we would have dreamed was possible just a few short years ago.

May 24, 2013
STUMPTALK: This is what we just elected
Socialism — a) Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

May 24, 2013
An American tragedy?
I knew a bond trader. Not well, but well enough to pity the man. Money was his only measure of worth. On a good day (if he made a lot of money), he was ecstatic. On a bad one, he was morose. He could be pleasant in conversation at times, but now and then he would appear clueless about the broader range of human experience. Although he was rich (by my standard, at least), there was something shallow and tawdry about his life.

May 22, 2013
A creative retelling of history
A wonderful film, “42,” has been showing at the Rocky Top theater in Crossville the last several weeks. It takes us back to 1947 when the lives of two Methodists, Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson, first intertwined.

May 22, 2013
Stumptalk: A super majority legislature
Much media attention has recently been focused on the inability of the super majority of Republicans in the 2013 legislature to enact every Republican bill into law. Why is this different from some of the recent super majority Democratic legislatures? If you were paying attention to the debates in the committees, and analyze that debate, you will find that Republicans don’t automatically follow their party leaders when it comes to doing what each individual legislator thinks is best for Tennessee. Republicans actually try to do what they think is best for our citizens.

May 20, 2013
Tidbits: Jolie’s move a conversation starter
Angelina Jolie, named the “Sexiest Woman in the World” by People Magazine in 2005, stunned the nation last week when she revealed she had chosen to have a preventative mastectomy after genetic testing revealed she had about an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

May 20, 2013
LION AND THE LAMB: Ten years in captivity
Traditionally male violence against women has been delivered by fist or gun. On May 6, however, another delivery system was brought to light: chains and rope.

May 14, 2013
WE THE PEOPLE: Crashing those Pearly Gates
Too often when one of our “public servants” dies, even if he is a blot on the human race, he is elevated to sainthood before they can get a tag on his toe. Then the press eulogizes him right into heaven before St. Peter can check his credentials. Even those who are a bit skeptical of this revision of history tend to adopt a “forgive and forget” attitude. Margaret Thatcher’s recent death seems to indicate that the British are less forgiving and have a better memory.

May 14, 2013
TIDBITS: Practical advice for new grads
Another graduation season is upon us, and soon a new crop of young adults will head out into the world, full of hopes and dreams for the future.

May 13, 2013
STUMPTALK: The right to bear arms
The anti-gun activists are wacky as a June bug for their solutions to eliminate gun-violence. They have it backwards. Instead of going after those that perpetrate these despicable acts, they are mounting attacks on law-abiding citizens, restriction of access to firearms, limiting magazine size and universal background checks.

May 13, 2013
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

We the People: Just another memorial?

Site Map

Contact Us