Memorial Day – 2019

A Special Parade

May 27, 2019

 

Dear Founders, Signers, Framers and former Presidents:

Back in November I wrote to all of you regarding a Veteran’s Day Parade that I thought could be used as a teaching tool to our present inept crop of politicians occupying Washington D.C. Here we are 6 months later and nothing has changed. If anything, Government has become even more dysfunctional. With that in mind, I thought I would take one more crack at waking these people up so we will continue our parade.

Once again the marchers will be all 535 members of Congress, Members of the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch which would include cabinet members. This time, the spectators will be veterans and any citizen of the United States.

The parade will pick up where the last one ended at the Lincoln Memorial and move across the Memorial Bridge into one of the most important places in our country, Arlington National Cemetery, which is only fitting since it is Memorial Day. The parade will wind its way up the hill and through this solemn and magnificent field of stone. The first stop will be a section that not many people are aware of. This section, just before your gravesite President Kennedy is where a number of Supreme Court Justices are buried but one in particular stands out and that one is the grave of Justice Potter Stewart. All marchers will be required to read his stone and tell us what is missing which makes it special. Your humbleness and patriotism are so evident Justice Stewart, traits which I feel are sorely missing in many of our politicians today.

The march will continue to your grave-site President Kennedy where the marchers will recite the words which you made famous at your inauguration, “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.” Here the marchers will take a few minutes and really think about your words President Kennedy and I am sure most will realize they can do a lot more for their country instead of for themselves and their party’s interests.

The parade will continue to the Amphitheater but before they enter they will stop at the grave which is just outside the Amphitheater to you, Audie Murphy one of the most decorated soldiers in our history, and think about your sacrifice and courage and hopefully some of that courage will rub off on them.

The marchers will then enter the amphitheater and probably the most solemn place in our country which is the Tomb of the Unknowns. Before they lay a wreath at The Tomb they will think about all those who served and gave their lives in anonymity. Maybe if our marching politicians did their jobs in anonymity and sacrificed their own personal gains, things would get done.

The final leg of the parade would be the march to Arlington House but before they arrive there they will stop and look north to Section 16 at the Confederate War Memorial. This memorial is surrounded by almost 500 graves of Confederate Soldiers. The same soldiers who fought for what they thought was a just cause and though it divided our nation they are united here in death. The one thing that many veterans who gave their lives have in common. We would then arrive at the former home of Robert E. Lee which probably provides one of the most beautiful views of that city named for you President Washington. A fitting place to end this parade and where all the marchers can contemplate on what they just saw and what they can do to improve in a way to honor all those who reside here at Arlington. They can also look down on your memorial President Lincoln and remember the words from your second Inaugural address:

 “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Perhaps your words President Lincoln can inspire our politicians to put aside all their pettiness and work with malice toward none for the benefit of all of us. I am sure Gentlemen that you would all agree we have borne the scars of their battles for much too long. Hopefully this Memorial Day Parade will open the eyes of all the politicians who are there to serve us.

Thank you for your time Gentlemen.

Happy Memorial Day!

 

Sincerely.

Andrew DeMarco

 

P.S. Let me know if you can tell me what makes Justice Stewart’s gravestone special.