A week ago today, I lamented that news reports of the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 seemed sadly lacking.
Today, I noticed another event that happened only yesterday, and was altogether ignored by the media here in Maryland, although other places across the country where it took place got coverage. I suppose this is to be expected, given one daily newspaper that is in its death throes, another that was all but stillborn, and a broacast news establishment that is prejudiced against reporting anything of substance, especially if it is of a positive or uplifting nature.
In the last day or two you may have received a e-mail from a friend containing James Varhegyi's photograph of Arlington National Cemetery in the snow, with a decorated Christmas wreath laid on each gravestone.
Now, on the second Saturday in December, wreath-laying ceremonies are conducted at hundreds of veteran's cemeteries across the country. They are done simultaneously at noon, EST. (Which means 0900 on the west coast.)
These outlying ceremonies consist of a wreath-laying for each branch of the service (including the merchant marine and POWs/MIAs) represented at each cemetery (i.e., not every grave).
An important part of this ceremony is the reading of the following words from President Ronald Wilson Reagan:
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
For the past two years, I have had the honor to be the bugler for the ceremony held at Baltimore National Cemetery, on Frederick Road. Each wreath was laid by a veteran of or active duty member of that service. Yesterday's group included a USAF Lieutenant who today is being deployed to Iraq, and the father of Marine Lance Corporal Matt Snyder. You may remember Matt's funeral as one that was crashed by those hateful SOBs from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, KS. (These are the "God Hates Fags" people who have been disturbing military funerals across the country.) Matt's family sued the "church," and won a ten million dollar judgement against them. Matt's cousin Mark Krause has become the go-to guy for this event in the Baltimore area.
Here in Maryland at least, the W.A.A. activity is sponsored by the
Patriot Guard Riders. These folks are the bikers who show up at military funerals (when invited) to pay their respects, and non-violently repel any demonstrators who might attend. They were the folks who kept the Westboro people at bay during the funerals of those Amish school kids murdered in PA last year.
We had about a hundred people at yesterday's ceremony, up from 30 the year before. The Halethorpe American Legion guys showed up with their 27 flags, in addition to the PGR's flag bearers (and family members), the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard's color guard, and a flock of spectators.
We were out there for about 90 minutes, and I did not feel the cold until I returned home.
This is one of those few events that remind us that "America" is not the United States Government, and that "America" lives on in spite of all the physical, political and ideological assaults it has borne recently.
tags: veterans military americanism patriotism
links: digg this del.icio.us technorati reddit
