The suffering
A partial view of the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington, DC, March 2005
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For Earl Glenn Cobeil, his family, and all whose suffering and sacrifice we remember today.
One year ago on Memorial Day:
This post was first published seven years ago on Memorial Day. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: courage, duty, honor, Memorial Day, monuments, remembrance, sacrifice, soldiers, tribute, valor, war memorials
Defeat Despair 
I didn’t know about this memorial and it fascinates me with the ghostly sculptures walking through what might even be tombstones. There’s a profound sadness to it that speaks of war and suffering, fear and duty. And death.
It’s important to remember those who have paid the ultimate price, and for us as a country to collectively remember them on Memorial Day. So many losses and too many wars sadden our hearts.
The Korean War Memorial is my personal favorite among war monuments, because it does not gloss over the horrors of warfare. It is even more striking in the snow. I felt the same way about some of the memorials at Gettysburg, some of which (as you know) are full of suffering. As much as I like the idea of not having a military draft, I think far too large a segment of the population has removed themselves from the grim realities of war, delegating that out to those less fortunate and then lightly declaring it’s time to attack. Sometimes I think bringing back the draft, with NO exemptions for anybody who was able to serve, would do more to promote peace than any protest or diplomacy could do.