By Carol McIntire
Editor
May 26, 2009
 |
AUXILIARY PLACES WREATH. Tammy Newbold (left) and Janice Dunlap, both members of the Ladies Auxiliary of Post 3301, place a wreath at the unknown soldiers marker. |
If ever there was a perfect day for a Memorial Day parade and observance, it was Monday.
The temperature was in the mid 70’s, the sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing and a large crowd lined the streets and later covered the lawn at Westview Cemetery as Carrollton held its annual Memorial Day observance.
The ceremony honored fallen members of the military, but a look around the crowd, offered a glimpse of the future and a look at the past.
Youngsters like 12-year-old Elizabeth Domer, who sang the National Anthem, Carrollton high School Junior Taylor Thompson, who read his state runner-up Voice of Democracy speech, and Michael Moore and Kevin Brantch, CHS band members who played Taps, provided a peek in the future.
Veterans such as 80-year-old Bill Eckley, who marched as a member of the Color Guard, Troy Cox, a WW II and Korean War Army era- veteran who placed a wreath at the Veterans Memorial, and the many veterans of all ages who stood or sat behind the Color Guard during the ceremony (some of whom carry with them wounds of war), offered a glimpse of our history and displayed their love of country.
A cannon, an exact replica of the first Union artillery piece to open fire at the Battle of Gettysburg provided a look at the past, and the young men who manned the canon, offered a look at their effort to keep history fresh in the minds of people of all ages.
State Rep. Mark Okey, a Civil War buff, took participants back in time to the first Memorial Day observance. He said the research for his speech provided him with some new, and interesting, information.
“After the Civil War, union veterans formed an organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic, better known as GAR,” Okey said from the stage. “The GAR’s first Commander in Chief was John A. Logan, and it was at the suggestion of some unknown veteran that Commander Logan recommend the observance of a day on which the graves of Civil War soldiers would be decorated with flowers. The observance became known as Decoration Day.”
The first Decoration Day was held at Arlington National Ceremony. Okey noted that, at the time, it was the final resting place for over 20,000 union and confederate dead. Among the 5,000 people in attendance that day was General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife. Grant defeated General Robert E. Lee on the battlefield, and ironically, Arlington National Cemetery is the site of Lee’s pre-war plantation home.
During his research, Okey found a U.S. Congressman from Ohio was the keynote speaker. He was James A. Garfield, who would later become President of the United States.
Okey noted his connection to the Civil War through his ancestor, Cornelius Okey, who was born in Monroe County, OH, and moved to Wisconsin prior to the Civil War. He was injured in the war, but survived and, later upon his death, was buried at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery.
He brought his speech back to the day when he asked the crowd, “Who is it you remember today? Is it some soldier from long ago? Right now there are 1,500 Ohioans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m certain their families are not thinking of old soldiers and ancestors. Their concerns are much more immediate. I trust God will bring all of them home safely.”
He asked, “What have you learned from this day?”
His lesson, he said, is best written in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote about fallen soldiers.
“Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been
The memory shall be ours.”
“I trust your memory will never let your forget those who died,” he said. “Never stop thanking those who dies,” he advised. “Never stop thanking those who served, Never stop helping those who have been left behind.”
His closing was a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.”
“So has it been throughout our American history. Liberty comes at a terrible price and one of us should ever take if for granted,” Okey concluded. |
