[Speed Gibson,
Sunday May 28, 2006 at 9:37am]
Memorial Day
I saw some chatter about adding the victims of the 9/11 attacks to the list of those we remember on Memorial Day. This would be wrong. President Bush recently admitted to some mistakes in the War on Terror, and one more would be all the compensation and undue attention paid to those who died that day. Yes, it was tragic, but Mohammed Atta did not target them specifically in any way. A few like those aboard Flight 93 did have the chance to fight back, preventing a still worse tragedy, but most were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Still, the list of those we remember on Memorial day could be expanded to remember all those who supported our fighting men and women, paying the taxes, growing the food, providing the supplies, and making the many sacrifices that come with the job. As I strolled through Atlantic, Iowa on a cloudy, blustery day, I got a sense of this.
At the end of the main street, at 1st and Chestnut stands the old Rock Island train depot, long closed and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I walked around the yard, trying to picture the activity of 50, 75, or 100 years ago. People coming and going, freight in and out, and what I perceive was once a coal yard alongside. Looking south from the depot, the business district unfolds for several blocks down to U.S. highway 6/71. Again, I tried to picture the bustle of what was, the unknown, hard-working people of these areas just going about their business.
I few old fashioned street lights caught my eye, and I soom began thinking what came before that, imagining the little, white-haired man of song, in a town I now wish I knew better.
"He made the night a little brighter
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter of long, long ago"
Still, the list of those we remember on Memorial day could be expanded to remember all those who supported our fighting men and women, paying the taxes, growing the food, providing the supplies, and making the many sacrifices that come with the job. As I strolled through Atlantic, Iowa on a cloudy, blustery day, I got a sense of this.
At the end of the main street, at 1st and Chestnut stands the old Rock Island train depot, long closed and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. I walked around the yard, trying to picture the activity of 50, 75, or 100 years ago. People coming and going, freight in and out, and what I perceive was once a coal yard alongside. Looking south from the depot, the business district unfolds for several blocks down to U.S. highway 6/71. Again, I tried to picture the bustle of what was, the unknown, hard-working people of these areas just going about their business.
I few old fashioned street lights caught my eye, and I soom began thinking what came before that, imagining the little, white-haired man of song, in a town I now wish I knew better.
Wherever he would go
The old lamplighter of long, long ago"