On behalf of the Chestertown Rotary Club and the Washington College Rotaract Club I thank the individual and corporate sponsors of our 2018 Flags for Heroes project whose support has made it a great success. We hope your readers will take the opportunity to view the display at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Morgnec Road and to reflect upon what Memorial Day is truly about. They should also take a minute to watch this very cool video shot on a crisp spring morning, which features the field of flags and 32 local veterans representing multiple generations whose service has spanned over time from WWII through Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War, to the more recent conflicts in the Middle East. A poignant display of camaraderie, the common bonds shared that morning amongst the flags were duty, honor, and country. We stand grateful to them, and to all men and women of our armed forces both past and present, for their service to our nation.
A special thank you to Jeff Weber and Steve Payne for producing this short video of this very special moment.
Andrew Meehan, President
Chestertown Rotary Club
Gren Whitman says
Even though I am a veteran (3 years, 2 months, 16 days, 22 hours, and 10 minutes, mostly in the 82d Airborne Division as a medic), I do not fully agree with and share in the knee-jerk, rah-rah patriotism I often see around me.
With no longer a military draft, the men and women now in military service are there because they’ve made a personal decision. They’re in the military by choice, and with full knowledge of the risks they may face and the consequences of being ordered into harm’s way.
They’ll be the very first to agree that most of them are no more heroic than you or I.
While I do not belittle anyone’s service, neither do I glorify it, considering the morally dubious conflicts they have freely enlisted to fight in (i.e., Grenada, Panama, Niger, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, as well as places that remain military and diplomatic secrets).
Consider also the absence of honor for non-military patriots, such as pro-footballer Colin Kaepernick, who speak up on behalf of and go to bat for those who are abused, injured, unjustly tried and imprisoned, and murdered all too often because they are black, or Latino, or Asian, or LGBT, or Native American, or just plain poor.
So, sure, on Memorial Day, if you care to, applaud our armed forces, active and retired, stand for the national anthem, and salute the flag, but please don’t overlook and don’t forget the darker forces afoot in our America.
Season your patriotism with a pinch of skepticism.