Opinion: Memorial Day 2023: What have we remembered? A way to co-create our Mutual Harmony?
I attended my 1st Memorial Day celebration at Dewitt Park this past Monday, presented by Post 961 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I thought it would only be a somber and nostalgic ceremony about past veterans. I was totally wrong! It spoke directly to me about the desecration of the monuments and the Park on Mothers’ Day Eve.
The American and POW flags were at half-staff. The VFW performed the ceremony. Johnny Russo started the ceremony with taps. A small group of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 377 were in attendance along with a wreath provided by them. The Mayor, representatives of the Ithaca Fire and Police Department and about 60-75 people attended. The ceremony ended. After most were gone, the flag rose to full staff again.
About ¾-way through, the ceremony changed tone. The focus migrated to those service members presently alive and that they were now providing us freedom and safety. As I looked around the crowd, I thought: “what about all of us being in service to the quality of our community life together?” I imagined us, the City, the County and all of us citizens committing in our own way to increasing harmony in our Lives. Yet, what about the recent graffiti and vandalism: how does this behavior create harmony? Is it a lesson?
President Gary Napierarcz of VVA377 recently sent a letter to City & County Leadership asking for a clear, funded project task force to better honor the 1856 commitment by the City to manage Dewitt Park, owned by the Presbyterian Church. He documented 15 improvements. Each will improve the space. Yet, even if all implemented, the cause of the problem might not be addressed.
This recent defacing of 4 monuments is frankly both needless and vicious. Where does this come from? From people who really hurt from an unlucky past? From people who are “having fun?” From excess drug or alcohol usage? Some people feel like they have the right to take matters into their own hands! How many might this be? Up to 5-7? They are outraged at something, or someone? Or anxious? Or sad? Or, plain ole mischievous? For whatever reason, 4 innocent, in fact honorable monuments were blamed.
These vandals use their personal life challenges as a rationale to deface four monuments, which happen to honor the Men, Women, (some barely old enough to serve) who fought for this country. These 4 monuments represent Black, White, Asian, Latino and American Indian citizens who gave their lives for our country’s vision, the 1st word being ‘Life’.. Their leaders were certainly not perfect. Each veteran probably knew the hand they, and their leaders, were dealt. They also knew that some leaders were driven by beliefs, not their highest & best. Yet, these vets continued, they served in spite of, and possibly because of, that 1st word: Life … for all!
Whether or not you are Christian, consider the words of John 8:7: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” A sin is a goof, a missing of the mark, a miss-take. “Throw the first stone” is possibly enacted by someone who is stuck in their beliefs, rather than in their highest and best values. And who is “she”? Another human, imperfect as we all are, doing her best with her lot in life? I read these 15 words and paused. Are we all in pain? Dissolving pain is much better than lashing out at misunderstood symbols.
Compassion and accountability are both needed today. We could all come together and create solutions for us all. And we could stay on the same path. If we can’t be civil, we can’t really communicate. If we can’t communicate, we talk to each other. If we talk at, we are not heard, we make noise. Hence less harmony.
There are many next steps. The first: pause! What could, should, or would we do? Then: what will we do?
- Those who participated in the Mothers’ Day vandalism: come forward and make amends with service.
- City of Ithaca & Tompkins Leadership: fund and design an inclusive Dewitt Park Development Team to better address the root cause: anxiety, fear, sadness, anger and co-create space for redirection.
- Each of us: change our behavior to better serve the quality of our small world and model for the world.
Signed,
Richard Paul Moore – Ithaca High School, Class of 1966
