By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
Bucyrus native and Air Force Major Kevin B. Stanley was given the chance to offer a perspective that, maybe, we don’t always realize is present. As the keynote speaker for the Bucyrus Memorial Day services, Stanley took it upon himself to speak for members of the military to offer thanks, for the gratitude that civilians give the people who serve our country.
“We hear thanks a lot, and it’s an inspiration to us.”
Stanley’s speech touched on the “You.” The “You” are the civilians in the audience; the people whom Stanley was so keen to thank. He spoke at length how much he and his comrades in arms are on the receiving end of gratitude of all sorts. It is clearly a meaningful gesture, as evidenced by Stanley’s earnestness in taking his chance to return the gratitude.
“It’s a great day to be in the military.”
This statement from Stanley embodied both sides of the gratitude coin. Obviously, Memorial Day is a day that members of the armed forces, former and current, are able to personally receive a great deal of that gratitude. But, as Stanley so passionately showed, this is a day for them to return the favor. It is a chance to show that all gratitude; all the words, gestures, and prays do not go unnoticed. They really do mean a great deal.
Memorial Day is clearly a day about gratitude for both parties. But it is also a Day of Remembering. This was a fact that could escape no one in the setting of Oakwood Cemetery. The living members of the audience were the physical manifestation of the present. Uniformed men and women dotted the grounds, on the dais, and in the form of police and firemen. Those in the audience listening were civilians, and former military. The silent audience members were the gravestones that mingled with the audience in stillness.
Just as gratitude must go to the living, so too must it go to the dead, for without whom we might not be living. Two Bucyrus High School Students delivered speeches from the past that reminded us how the Memorial Day events look backward through time was well.
Logan Plumley read General Logan’s General Order Number 11. This was the order that, in 1868 established the Memorial Day that we had all gathered to commemorate. This came on the back of the bloodiest war in American history.
“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”
The depth and effect of that conflict is illustrated in just how many towns and villages nationwide would have need of such a ceremony, It affected the entire country.
There is a sentence later in the order that displays how we can show them our gratitude even in death:
“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance.”
Guarding their graves means physically guarding, making sure they are not vandalized, or fall into disrepair etc. But it is also remembering. The simple act of not forsaking; of going there from time to time and standing our own post of remembrance. They protected us in life, now we must remember them in death.
Haley Van Voorhis was the other Bucyrus High School Student, and she delivered Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address. It is fitting in so many ways, but it was also a battleground graveyard speech; delivered in the wake of the bloodiest battle in American history. But it his earnest plea that we must never forget,
“That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”