Students hear poignant Memorial Day message
By Tammy Compton
Independent Staff Writer
VARDEN - Everyone needs to understand.
Abraham Lincoln understood the price of war. President Lincoln, in a letter to a mother
who had just lost five of her sons to acti ve combat during the Civil War, wrote of great
sacrifice, saying, "I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine that
would attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming."
As retold in the movie Saving Private Ryan, his words co ntinued, "But I can not
refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the
republic they died to save. I pray that out Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of
your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the love lost, the solemn
pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice on the alter of freedom."
It was a movie that would leave a lasting mark on those who viewed it. Imprinted on their
soul was the view that a cameraman had captured that of white crosses, grave markers
standing row upon row.
All these years later, sacrifices are still being made. Wars are still being fought. The
Kosovo crisis continues and lives are lost. Western Wayne Middle School Assistant
Principal, Ms. Mary Caljean, at the school's Memorial Day assembly, chose to speak of
those brave individuals who are fighting under the NATO Alliance. As she stood before the
student body Friday morning, here's the message she imparted: "During World War I, a
lot of people didn't want to get involved. But then they realized that we had to because
it preserved the world's safety. Democracy came to the forefront in WWII. And then again
in Korea, we were fighting the spread of communism which was a big threat ... We went
through the same kind of threat in Vietnam, when my generation was a little but older than
you."
"Luckily," her words continued, "we don't have the kind of war we used to
have where ground troops are involved. But there's still brave men and women out there
fighting. And we need to remember them, too, today. They're over in Kosovo, standing for
Liberty. Not as United States but as World Troops, under the United Nation's Flag. They
need to be remembered and told that we care about them and that we haven't forgotten what
they' re fighting for - our liberty and our freedom."
Soldiers make a sacrifice. When a young student, Katrina Gilpin, approached the podium,
situated in the center of the gymnasium, the crowd grew silent. And they listened as the
poem she read unfolded. She chose to read a poem penned by George L. Skypeck. Here's what
she wanted her fellow classmates to know:
Soldier
By George L. Skypeck
I was that which others did not want to be
I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing, and reluctantly
accepted the thought of eternal loneliness ... should I fail.
I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear;
and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moment's love.
I have cried, pained, and hoped ... but most of all,
I have lived times others would say were best forgotten.
At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of
what I was ... A soldier |
