Memories and Memorials
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered by: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4211
It has been said that "a land without ruins is a land without memories–a land without memories is a land without history.”1 Each nation has its stories, its triumphs and tragedies, its battle scars and memorials. Not only do they define our past, they also shape our present and future. Without memories and memorials, we wouldn’t know where we came from, where we’re headed, or even who we are. Taking time to appreciate and reflect upon the past evokes feelings of gratitude and respect for so many who gave so much.
World War II veteran Colonel Jack Tueller recalls: “I didn’t want to talk about the war with my kids when they were growing up. It was too painful.”2 For a long time, his only memorial of the war was his trumpet, the same one he carried with him in the cockpit of his fighter plane in the skies over Normandy. Its music brought him comfort during those dark days.
Now 89 years old, he still plays that trumpet, but he has changed his tune a little. “Veterans should not retire,” he now says. “They should tell everyone who listens or reads what a wonderful life this is, and what a wonderful country this is…. People have got to know why there are thousands of crosses [in the cemeteries].”3
We must not forget those who have shaped our history, our memories and memorials. As the noted 19th-century poet Father Abram Joseph Ryan wrote:
“Yes, give me a land with a grave in each spot,
And names in the graves that shall not be forgot;
Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb;
There is grandeur in graves—there is glory in gloom;
For out of the gloom future brightness is born,
As after the night comes the sunrise of morn;
And the graves of the dead with the grass overgrown
May yet form the footstool of liberty’s throne,
And each single wreck in the war path of might
Shall yet be a rock in the temple of right.”4
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