Memorial Day:

Stu Rogers of South Royalton stands at the ready during the Tunbridge Memorial Day ceremony Monday afternoon. (Herald photo / Tim Calabro)

A Fresh Perspective

By Jonathan Kearney

(Jonathan Kearney, a young English journalist who grew up in Liverpool, is working for The Herald this week as part of a summer adventure in America. We asked him to report on his impressions of an American Memorial Day celebration.)

Families looked on as fresh-faced musicians from the junior and high school band marched along the Main Street, lined with stars and stripes. With a solemn pride, patriotic townsfolk cheered the progress of a Pontiac Bonneville carrying distinguished war veterans. And all the while the sun beat down on my neck.

I really didn’t need any more indication that I was in small town America.

Although this heartwarming Memorial Day scene would be repeated the length and breath of the country, I discovered that, aside from the pleasant festivities, this public holiday would be met with particular poignancy in Vermont.

It was to my surprise that this picturesque state of rolling green contributed proportionally more inhabitants to serve in the American Civil War than any of its national neighbors. Further, I was informed that the same is true of the country’s current conflict.

As former State Senator Steve Webster told me: "Interest in Memorial Day has really picked up over the last four years."

I took in the Grant Memorial Park ceremony in Randolph, which was concluded with a speech by Vermont Congressman Peter Welch. The Democratic Rep. offered some crowd-pleasing but justified praise of the band, the Randolph community and the local newspaper. He talked of the importance of Memorial Day and offered his support of the troops from the Green Mountain State.

Rep. Welch also called for future national policies that are "worthy of their willingness to sacrifice for their country" in terms of a helping hand for returning soldiers. He told me that in Vermont war "has a real impact on communities."

And in Tunbridge

Despite being a fifth of the size of Randolph, nearby Tunbridge marked this most prominent day on the nation’s calendar with yet greater enthusiasm. Sidewalks were packed with people along the procession to the cemetery, where an impressive cannon loomed over proceedings.

Proud mother and Etna, N.H. resident Melissa Haas was there to see her daughters Cathy, in her role as a Brownie Scout, and Elizabeth, reading "In Flanders Fields."

She explained: "Memorial Day is definitely a time to honor the men and women who have fought for the freedoms of our country and freedoms around the world. Sometimes that gets lost, but that’s what it’s all about."

The inference that local citizens had perhaps lost sight of the "true meaning" of Memorial Day had kept cropping up over the course of the holiday weekend and was again supported by Civil War expert Peter Jorgensen.

He told the Tunbridge crowd: "We are not here to glorify war, buy plants or eat chicken."

But in a touching speech, Staff Sgt. Todd Sedlak, who served a year in Iraq, offered a contrasting viewpoint.

Rather than seeing informal family activities as a hindrance to Memorial Day, he welcomed the onset of picnics, barbecues, and the beginning of summer because in his words "our children’s laughter is our legacy."

Afterwards the former serviceman, who just recently moved to Tunbridge, pointed out his daughter from a jolly crowd enjoying a day in the sunshine and told me with heartfelt sincerity, "That’s why I’m out of the Army now."

I found no sign of warmongering or undignified frivolity over the weekend—just proud Vermonters enjoying themselves and taking time out to pay their respects. As an outsider looking in, that seemed like something worth celebrating.