Community Newspapers www.communitynewspapers.com
WEST PARK NEWS
MAY 2012
WHO’S WHO
WEST
PARK
CITY
OFFICIALS
In City Government
Mayor Eric H. Jones, Jr.
Vice Mayor Felicia M. Brunson
Commissioner Thomas Dorsett
Commissioner Sharon Fyffe
Commissioner Rita “Peaches” Mack
City Manager W. Ajibola Balogun
REMEMBERING THOSE WHO SACRIFICED BY MAYOR ERIC H. JONES JR.
T
his month we will celebrate Memorial Day . This holiday was unofficially begun by women of the South during the Civil War when they placed flowers over the graves of the “men in gray.” In 1868, General John A. Logan, Commander-inChief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order officially setting aside May 30 as “Decoration Day.” It has now become an occasion on which we remember not only those who have fallen in war, but also all our dead veterans. A few years ago a wall was built in Washington D.C. and on it were inscribed the names of the thousands who had died in the Vietnam War, perhaps the most controversial war in our nation’s history, but regardless of what people thought about that war, this wall memorial reminds us that thousands of Americans sacrificed their lives in that far-off place. Most of them were young people who wanted to hold on to life. Their names are on that wall. One of them was a MY young man whom I loved dearly—M BROTHER—a wonderful person and my best friend. I’ll never forget standing beside his coffin as he was buried with military honors. All of us owe these young men and women a great debt. Down through the years, in many wars, millions have sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom, so it is fitting for us to remember them as a nation. I recall watching a video on the news that was profound in its message. Someone had taped a man standing next to the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial. His right hand was extended and he was gently caressing someone’s name that was etched into that wall. It was very moving. Over and again, he repeated these words: “He died for
me. He died for me.” Was it a brother? Was it his a father? Was it his friend? We will never know, but one thing is for certain—the man was visibly moved by the sacrifice of one man! The ability to remember is a wonderful gift God has given us. In a flash we can be a child again, skipping rocks across a pond, or walking in a meadow. Through memory we can fall in love, get married, and enjoy our children all over again. All this is possible through the blessing of memory. Some of our memories are happy as we recall wonderful experiences,
but some are sad make us weep. Memories are also very practical. If we couldn’t remember that a red light means “stop” we’d be in trouble. If you weren’t able to remember what day it is, or your anniversary or wife’s birthday – you’d be in big trouble. So memories are practical. Memorial Day, perhaps more than any other holiday, was born of human necessity. We need to remember. Deep inside all of us lies a fundamental desire to make sense of life and our place in the world. What we have been given, what we will do with it and what we will pass to the next generation is all part of an unfolding history, a continuum that links one soul to another. President Abraham Lincoln pondered these thoughts in the late fall of 1863.
His darkest fear was that he might well be the last president of the United States, a nation embroiled in the self-destruction of what he described as “a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” He began his remarks with those words as he stood on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19th of that year. This speech which became known as The Gettysburg Address turned into what might be called the first observance of Memorial Day. Lincoln’s purpose that day was to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as a cemetery for the thousands of men, both living and dead, who consecrated that soil in the sacrifice of battle. Said Abraham Lincoln: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause which they gave the last full measure of devotion...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” WWhen I consider the power of this little narrative, I’m reminded of that Gettysburg Address, a speech given to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as a cemetery for the Civil War dead. It begins: “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The whole speech, from beginning to end, is only 272 words long. It took Lincoln barely two minutes to deliver, but what most people don’t know is that Lincoln wasn’t the only speaker that day. A man named Edward Everett, who was considered to be a great orator, came before Lincoln in the program and gave an address that lasted a full two hours. It contained over 14,000 words, and began like this: “Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our
,
––––––––––––––See REMEMBERING page 3