“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice.” [Harrison Ford in the movie, “Air Force One”]

Memorial Day at the Presidio was as full of pageantry as it was solemnity. The day was bright, but brisk, yet the grounds were packed with visitors of every age, gathered to pay tribute and give thanks to the more than one million American military men and women who have given their lives in our nation’s wars. The Rose and Moore families were given the gift of communal grieving for their sons’ sacrifice in Iraq, and the mothers of these two San Francisco heroes laid wreaths at the feet of the warrior’s battlefield memorial, a rifle upright with a Kevlar helmet atop the weapon. Every mother who has a child in harm’s way is a “Blue Star” mother, but these two women were honored in a way no mother every wants to be honored…by becoming a “Gold Star” mother of a child who has fallen in combat. The community shared some small piece of their pain, and many in the audience who had lost loved ones in Korea, Vietnam, and even a few from World War II, shed tears of empathy.

The ceremony was brilliantly administered by the man who has put on this program every year for nearly a decade, Lt. Col. Wallace Levin (Ret.). He ensured that Veterans of every branch of the military were honored, including one, lone Buffalo Soldier who was dressed in his full regalia. Prayers of many faiths were offered, and the Gettysburg Address was read, but not before noting that on that Pennsylvania battlefield, both the Union and the Confederacy lost more soldiers in each army than were buried at the Presidio National Cemetery, which is the final resting place for 30,000 warriors.

As a Veterans Affairs Commissioner for the City of San Francisco, it was good to see some of our elected officials at the ceremony. I was also honored to share the stage with the county chair and executive director of the San Francisco Republican Party, Christine Hughes and Christopher Bowman. There was one glaringly obvious empty chair right near the podium…the chair that is always empty…the one labeled Mayor Newsom. In fact, the only time he has attended San Francisco’s Memorial Day event was last year, when Steve Westley made it a campaign stop. However, one of the Mayor’s opponents in the upcoming race was recognized and appreciated for his attendance.

The elected officials who spoke did a fine job, and sounded surprisingly like Republicans when they talked about the military. I suppose it’s hard to speak liberal-ese when you look at a crowd of hundreds of people in military uniforms, widows of men who used to wear the uniform, and people of every ethnicity wearing red, white and blue, waving their miniature flags. Senator Migden did a very good job of addressing the crowd…and inadvertently condemned Gavin Newsom when she said, “Attending ceremonies to honor our fallen soldiers is the very smallest thing we can do…”

Though I cringe at sharing the roadway with her, I share Senator Migden’s sentiments. Memorial Day shouldn’t be about sleeping in and barbequing in the afternoon. It’s about taking time out of our lives for a few hours each year to gather with our community to give thanks for those who were willing to lay their lives down for ours. May they rest in peace.

[Publisher’s Note: Well, since Jill brought up Air Force One, the movie, we here at the FR cannot resist inserting a video of the best seven minutes of the movie – Flash]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.