Mike Moser "I Say" Published May 24, 2002

Maybe the time has come for
a special tribute to soldiers

Today we are losing as many as 1,000 World War II veterans a month.

This nation was born in the fire of battle and ever since those Colonial days, we have found ourselves thrust from one conflict to another. Today our military personnel are involved in hot spots all over the world, some of which we don't even know.

On April 25, 1866, a group of women visited a cemetery in Columbus, MS, to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in the battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers that had been neglected because they marked the burial site of the enemy.

These women, disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, placed some flowers on those grave sites as well.

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, Decoration Day, or Memorial Day as it is commonly known today, was established by a group of veterans as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.

The first Monday in May is set aside each year to honor and remember our war dead. In November we honor all veterans on Veteran's Day, the living as well as the dead.

Cumberland County has purchased the old First Baptist Church building on First St. with plans to turn that facility into a county archives/genealogy center and museum.

There is also mention that a room to remember Cumberland Countians who served their country be established. It is fitting and proper we do this but I would like to see that carried one step further.

It would be nice for the county to establish a museum where not only memorabilia of past wars can be stored for future generations to see, but a repository where families can donate mementos, medals, etc., when they are seeking a safe place for them to be stored and shared with others.

A highlight of such a museum would be taped conversations and first-person written accounts of war experiences for our children, grandchildren and future generations to have.

The purpose would not be to glorify war but to remind us all of the sacrifices these men and women made to ensure that we enjoy the freedoms we have today, and to remind us of just how horrible these armed conflicts have been.

It would be a great civic and community service project for some club or organization to tape record conversations with our surviving veterans. And it would be fitting for the county to provide a safe haven in which to save these special treasures.

That way we could observe Memorial Day and Veterans Day every day of the year.

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Mike Moser is the editor of the Crossville Chronicle. His column is published periodically on Fridays.