To the Editor:
The following was written by our granddaughter, Kayla Scott, 14, after a class trip to Washington, D.C., and visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Unknown Soldier

We really don’t know who he is. We know what he represents and that our lives are marked each and everyday by him: Did he know? Did he know who he would be to the world? That soldier from long ago? Did he know what he would mean to us?

I wish he could. I wish there was a way he could know just how many people come each year to this memorial. Millions. People from all the armed forces, visitors from every country on the earth, every race and creed and even just ordinary people like me. We file in, voices hushed, filled with awe by the eternal ring of fire and the solemn ceremony of the changing of the guard. We sit and watch and think. We think about our freedom and his sacrifice. We think about someone we loved that also lost their life in war. If we are honest, we think just how fortunate we are to not be him.

We are then suddenly overwhelmed with so many emotions it is hard to put names to them. We are proud, we are ashamed, we are unsure about the world, we are hopeful, we are cynical - all at the same time.

Was this boy with his life hanging before him going to war with the hope of changing the world? Or was this a man, maybe with a wife and kids, knowing the sacrifice and forging ahead anyway? It matters not I suppose. The gift is the same. We have a place for ceremony, for reflection and dedication to those stronger than us.

I would hope that faced with the same challenge, I could persevere. I would hope that I could put my selfish, trivial needs aside and fight for a country that allows freedom of religion, speech and press and all of our other inalienable rights. Probably this man felt all those emotions we feel when coming to see him. But the difference, he fought anyway.

But could I? Could I do what this man has done? Maybe he was not much older than me - maybe he was only 18 years old - his life before him. Maybe he thought, “I’m going to change the world.” And, change the world he did. Does he know? Yes, I think so. Wherever he is, I am sure he knows and is not proud. If he could tell us anything, he would simply say, “It was an honor.”

Kenny Scott
Carrollton, OH
Martha and Gordon Ashton
Malta, OH     

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