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Memorial Day Weekend 2006Veterans Initiate a Broader Commemoration of Memorial Day to Include All War Victims.
Veterans Remember Innocent Civilian dead and Soldiers of the Other Side.
Korean War and Vietnam War veterans participated in the Annual Veterans Commemorative Assembly on Sunday, May 28, at the Vietnam War
Memorial (55 Water St.) holding up a poster lettered:
VETERANS REMEMBER
OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS
SOLDIERS of the OTHER SIDE
and INNOCENT CIVILIANS
During the speeches by representatives of Veterans For Peace, Vietnam
Veterans Against the War, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and others,
the visual message was much appreciated by all involved and received much onlooker attention including from a Daily News photographer and
an ABC cameraman, both of whom were given copies of the press release published on History News Network and OpEd.com., but one emembered
that the previous year saw an array of TV cameras that included every major network and even some foreign press.
At the traditional throwing of flowers into the bay, all those in attendance who wished to, spoke words of mourning loved ones, friends, or civilians, and many decried cruel invasions of small countries. It was a gorgeous summer afternoon, and the beautiful blue sky and the view of the waves in the blue sea with passing tourist ships could have contributed to many of the speakers choking
up, their being so graphically reminded of something their deceased friend or family member might have truly enjoyed.
On Memorial Day itself, the same vets sought to make their presence at Soldiers' and Sailors Monument (89th St. & Riverside Drive). Upon
arriving near the edge of the huge monument festooned with military flags among the many colorful uniforms of military groups drawn up in
formation around a speakers dais, they were suddenly confronted by belligerent young man, who was, as it turned out, one of the dignitaries on the program and would later address those assembled, and who threatened to beat up the elderly veterans holding the sign if they did not get across the street. The vets pointing out that the
words on the sign only sought to include others who had died, only enraged the man further and he tried to seize the sign. The vets went
across the street to a police car to report the threat, and an understanding officer in charge, obviously not wishing to criticize a personage of this licensed event, posted the vets back on the
monument side but well to the rear and distant from the audience.
As the vets stood there within earshot of the various speeches praising military service and ultimate sacrifice, a couple of hundred
people walked by the sign and so many gave assenting nods or spoke their agreement with the commiserating thought of humanity expressed
on their sign - a smartly uniformed Marine captain came over and kindly thanked them for bringing their viewpoint. Fox and CNN cameramen crews received copies of the press release.
It was heartening that the words displayed met with only that single disapproval and such a great show of compassion for the 'foreign' families discounted during the honoring of only our own.
Can anyone seriously doubt that there will eventually be, in the words of Howard Zinn,
author of "A Peoples History of the United States", "Yes, a Memorial Day for all war victims. We must discard our narrow nationalism, and see all victims in every country as our brothers, our sisters, our
mothers and fathers, our children."
Jay Janson, May 30, 2006
