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Show Pleasant Grove Review - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - Page 2 PINION J I- American Fork .City Council Meeting" 1 $ Veterans Day if s a time for remembering This week we celebrated Veterans Veter-ans Day. - It's always nice when a holiday falls on the day the newspaper is published. It gives us time and motivation to ponder and peruse ftie reasons behind the special day and its meaning in our lives. " Many from the newspaper have been privileged to go into the homes of some of our most distinguished veterans. Several times during the years, we have been able to interview them and have hoped when we wrote articles about them, we were able to reflect at least a portion of the awe we felt while in their presence. pres-ence. It truly has been an honor to Jget to know these gentlemen at Heast at little bit. ! Some have been veterans of Imore current conflicts, but most Iserved in World War II. ; From discussions we have had with their family members, they have been somewhat reticent to talk about their experiences until ijhe last few years. In the readings we have done about the realities of t. Known but to God I. " Nestled in northeast France, ;Chalons-sur-Marne is a picture postcard waiting to be stamped Jand mailed. L At least, it is today. But it hasn't always been. Situated near the French-German border, the picturesque Ihamlet has often been under jsiege. In A.D. 451, for example, it was the place where Attila Jand his Huns suffered ignominious ignomin-ious defeat at the hands of the Romans and Visigoths. During JWorld War II the Germans used !the Chalons-sur-Marne prison las an assembly station for deportations. This is a town that knows all jabout paying tribute to those jwho have fallen in combat. After all, it has been doing so for millennia. So it seems some-Jiow some-Jiow appropriate that one of America's most enduring military mili-tary memorials began 83 years !ago in Chalons-sur-Marne. ; On an autumn day in 1921, four caskets lay in state in the Hotel de Ville, which also served as the Chalons-sur-Marne City Hall. Within these caskets were the . mortal remains of four unidentified American soldiers who had lost their lives and, somehow, Itheir respective identities on French battlefields during jWorld War I. Because of his outstanding out-standing service record, ;Sergeant Edward F. Younger of the 59th Infantry was given the task of choosing one of these four caskets to be transported fa Washington, D.C., to be interred with honor in Arlington Arling-ton National Cemetery as America's Unknown Soldier. ; Sgt. Younger was well aware of the significance of his duty. ,He had served valiantly during World War I, which had ended with the signing of the Armistice ending hostilities on jNov. 11, 1918. He had seen scores of his comrades-in-arms fall during battle. At night, when he tried to sleep, he could still see their anguished, contorted con-torted faces, and he could still hear their agonizing cries and screams. There were many of that number whose bodies had never been recovered, or could-h't could-h't be identified. "Were any of them here?" he wondered as he walked around the caskets three times. As he started around for the fourth time, he said he felt "involuntarily drawn" to the second one. So he solemnly war, we can understand how they felt. We can't explain what has happened hap-pened that has prompted them to open up and discuss their experiences. experi-ences. We can only say we have felt privileged to have heard them and to have seen their mementos. Our community and the surrounding sur-rounding areas is home to many noble service members, who did what they considered to be simply their duty. They didn't expeot honors hon-ors or fanfare, and most have felt uncomfortable to have any portion of the limelight. For that reason, many of their stories are not well known. That is a shame. We encourage anyone who knows a veteran to encourage him or her to share their experiences and feelings with family members and friends. Those stories are too precious to be lost and too good a learning tool to be relegated to a dusty booksheE We would be living up to the slogan, slo-gan, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." Vf3Mr I ... J . , rr nri ,,.... ,.J marched toward it, gently laid a bouquet of white roses upon it, saluted and then turned to report to his commanding officer offi-cer that his mission had been accomplished. On Nov. 11, 1921, America's Unknown Soldier was laid to rest with all the pomp and circumstance cir-cumstance a grateful nation could muster. In those days before DNA testing and other modern developments, it was unfortunately not usual to be unable to provide absolute identification iden-tification of fallen soldiers. So this soldier, whoever he was, represented not just the four whose caskets lay in state in Chalons-sur-Marne, but also thousands of other soldiers from other wars who gave everything even their very identities so friends, family members and countless unknown others could enjoy the safety and security of the freedoms free-doms we now enjoy. Do you see the irony of that? We refer to these soldiers as "unknown," but in fact they WERE known deeply and intimately by loved ones who missed them desperately when they failed to return from war. The real "unknowns" in this equation is us "we, the people" peo-ple" for whom they died. They didn't know us. Most had no connection to us whatsoever. And yet they fought and died for us known or unknown and for something they believed in. Something greater than self. Something more precious, even, than a man's own good name: Freedom Which is why I appreciate the sentiment of the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Sol-dier "Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier Known but to God" but I don't buy it. I feel like I know this guy, and other "unknowns" of his generation and others. I know what they stood for. I know what they fought for. I know what they died for. Even if I don't know their names. ' " XXaW heads or tails forX ;J J your plan to get the ) money .- V Recreation. yWrt f JP (C i Heads forYWS f t! Honor a vet, remember Usually there is too much going on with community Halloween party and election coverage to report much for Veterans Day. The same is true before Memorial Day, we have school graduation ceremonies, cere-monies, awards, honors and city celebration preparations in May. This year is the exception. There is a little lull of one week between elections, Halloween coverage and Veterans Day. So rather than give you just a photo of a veteran with a flag, we have an historical piece by Linda Butler on World War II to honor our veterans. If it seems a little too excessive, remember this we haven't been able to cover this holiday very wdl over the last few years. C: It is makeup time. We found World War II and Iraq stories were the easiest to find. Even then, some soldiers we talked to did not want to dredge up old memories by sharing them with others. After 60 years, it was still too difficult. For the younger vetr-, I Editor, I am compelled to write concerning concern-ing the outstanding character and sense of civic duty recently displayed dis-played by the citizens of Saratoga Springs. When the Utah County Auditor's Audi-tor's office received an overwhelming over-whelming amount of voter registrations regis-trations in the days before the election, they realized they needed need-ed to arrange for additional voting vot-ing locations for the quickly growing grow-ing community of Saratoga Springs. They asked if they could use our newly constructed Saratoga Sarato-ga Springs branch office as a voting vot-ing location for Precinct SR 01. We gladly accommodated their request to do our part in helping with the election process and handling han-dling the record voter turnout expected. A line of voters began at 7 a.m. and never got below 100 people all day long. The building was filled and voters even had to wait outside in the cold. The wait to vote was between two and three hours. Moms and dads - some with kids - waited patiently for their chance to vote. We anticipated that after 5 p.m. when many voters got off work and hoped to vote, the line would get even longer. And it did. Even with the building full the line went out the door, down the sidewalk, around the corner and reached all the way to the drive-through drive-through windows. Then when the Mfo j ' - k ans, it was too soon. Remember as you read these stories, there are others, those who are, silent. They have nightmares, they would prefer not to share. It is because of these vets sacrificing their innocence, their security, their peace, that we have ours. There are also veteran stories from other wars missing the Vietnam, Korean, Gulf, Afghan and Iraq wars. We need to hear from you. Let us know if any veterans have stories they can share. We will file the contact information away for next year. This Veterans Day weekend, we would encourage you to honor a vet, and remember the sacrifices they gave for us. Show gratitude Reader's Forum sun went down, it began to get really cold. All the close parking spaces were taken and even when faced with close to a three hour wait, the voters kept coming. As a credit union staff, we tried to do our part by providing cookies, cook-ies, bottled water, pizza, propane heaters for those standing outside, out-side, and lots of encouragement. But we couldn't do much about the long wait. Now here is what amazed me -These great citizens had eveiy justifiable reason to look at the line, think about children, dinner and school the next day and then just decide to leave and not vote. But they were determined to exercise their right to vote. They didn't leave. Many stated that this was one of the most important impor-tant elections of their lifetime. They spent the time in line chatting chat-ting with neighbors and getting to know others. Some read and a few yawned and looked at their watches. But they didn't leave. Then out of nowhere a group of young women arrived and volunteered to take all the children into a room and provide coloring books, videos activities, and games. There were around 20 children in the "nursery" "nurs-ery" at any given time. The young women just thought it would be a good service project and a good way to help the parents be able to vote withj out having to worry about bored, unhappy, and crying the sacrifice for the blessings we share by attending a veterans program or other special event during this time. Vice Commander George Van De Water has, in cooperation with the Saints and Soldiers movie producers, pro-ducers, organized a wonderful fund-raiser and veterans program for Nov. 13, at the Scera in Orem. There will be a show at 11 am. and 1;30 p.m. Its purpose is to help activate the Pleasant Grove American Legion Post 70 and to raise money for crosses to honor veterans in the cemetery on Veterans Day. Normally, admission would be $6 to' $9 to see such an award-winning movie. Instead, the veterans are asking for donations of $3 per person. I encourage you to give more for this worthy cause. If your Saturday is taken up with sports games and other events but you would like to make a donation, call George at 2254128 or 400-5037. - V children as the parents stood in line. Then at about 8 p.m. with the lines still reaching out into the cold parking lot a woman named Liliam who had already waited and voted earlier in the day returned with her husband and ten gallons of hot chocolate for her neighbors and fellow citizens still waiting out side in the cold to vote. Over 1,000 people voted .through out the day and the last person to vote didn't get to vote until well after 11 p.m. I was simply sim-ply amazed at the patience, kindness, kind-ness, optimistic attitude, and sense of neighborhood that I experienced expe-rienced in Saratoga Springs 00 that busy election day and mgn -This must be a great coniniurut) in which to live. The people 01 Saratoga Springs took an expen ence that could have been m and made the best of it- 1 81 amazed. As we open our soon-to-be-c pleted branch office in Saratov Springs, I am honored that have the opportunity to serve citizens of such a great coning ty. We look forward to being a d ger part of this community . can only promise those who and work here that we will best to serve your needs an ' the lines during our regular -ness will not be as long as during the elections. nl(in ntCEO Utah Community Credit Un,l,n V ;'le pi Jan: . |