THE LAND — NOVEMBER 12/NOVEMBER 19, 2021
www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
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Hospers Historical Museum located in library basement FARMHOUSE KITCHEN, from pg. 4 It wasn’t just visual. There were also oral and video histories which had been made by the Rock County Historical Society of the people who had served in the military. We watched the documentary, “The Fighter Pilot’s Story,” that Quentin Aanenson put together with his son-in-law in the early 1990’s. Mr. Aanenson produced and distributed this 90-minute documentary which includes real archive footage of the war. Aanenson talked candidly of the emotional and physical toll the war effort required from its soldiers. It is the documentary Ken Burns saw when he was doing his research on WWII. The museum doesn’t just focus on WWII. No, it begins with the Civil War Fyvie Rae Horne served in WW I. She died from com- because 70 percent of Rock County’s first settlers plications of the Spanish were Civil War veterans. It Influenza. showcases all the wars continuing through present day freedom fighters. It appears that freedom requires constant vigilance. The museum is all about heroes — local heroes who gave of themselves so that we could enjoy pleasant days. We left the museum in a somber frame of mind with tears in our eyes. It is rather humbling to realize how much our freedom costs. A few weeks later with the meaningful museum visit still uppermost in my mind, I was enjoying a draft horse show. There a man was wearing a t-shirt with these words: “Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you: Jesus Christ and the American soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.” In view of this truth, how then ought we to live our lives? The Herreid Military Museum is located at 213 E. Luverne St. in Luverne, Minn. It is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Sunday. On a side note, on Oct. 22 we visited the Hospers Historical Museum in Hospers, Iowa for the first time. The museum is located in the basement of the Hospers Public Library. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. The first thing we saw when we came down the elevator was their military display. Uniforms from the different military branches and wars were on mannequins. Many with names, photos and a short history of the men who wore them in service.
The display on LeRoy Poppema really caught my attention. In 1967, this Hospers native enlisted in the Viet Nam war. He was trained to be a hospital corpsman and was assigned to the Marines Corps unit. He was only 22 years old when he was killed by a mortar explosion while rendering aid to a wounded Marine. At an early age, he valued freedom At the Hospers Historical Museum a — not just for himdisplay of military uniforms through self, but for others. the decades reminds us that freedom He expressed his views in this essay needs constant vigilance. while an eighthgrade student at the Hospers Christian School: What Freedom Means to My Parents and Me Kings have come and kings have gone, but the desire for freedom lingers on in the hearts of every one of our countrymen. The man of this bewildered world has always treasured freedom, but has often let freedom slip from his possession. Freedom must be broad and deep, but it cannot be absolute and unlimited. It is also limited by the rights of the community and the general public. Liberty is not a license: We do not have the right to us use our freedom irresponsibly and unfairly, to injure other individuals to destroy their freedom and rights, or to endanger the welfare of a community as a whole. An important test of this maturity and responsibility is whether the individual citizen recognizes the moral and legal responsibility which
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goes along with exercise of his personal rights. We are obligated to exercise every right in such a way as not to interfere with another person’s exercising of the same rights. If the bulk of Americans do not understand or abide by this essential obligation, this Golden Rule which accompanies the exercise of freedoms, the eventual penalty, could be the loss of all freedoms to all of us. Freedom means enjoyment, privileges which were hard fought for by our forefathers. With our freedom we are being able to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience. Thanks be yet to God that I have the right to worship God in the church of my liking. I am still a respectable citizen of the state and I can be individualistic and I can still express, and I can write of my own accord that is without using slang. In the name of decency I can use my freedom of fair LeRoy Poppema gave trial. I am not told what to do his life protecting freeby the government. I can dom for others. choose my own course. In short, we have a responsibility to use our freedom, to form associations in such a way that this right will aid the cause of protecting and broadening all human freedom. —LeRoy Warren Poppema Renae B. Vander Schaaf is an independent writer, author and speaker. Contact her at (605) 530-0017 or agripen@live.com. v
