Thank you for freedom
Photo by CHANSE WATSON Art Flemming addresses the crowd during the Veterans Day ceremony at the Silver Valley Veteran’s Memorial in Kellogg.
Photo by CHANSE WATSON The now annual tradition of firing off the Howitzer Cannon at the conclusion of the memorial service once again treated spectators to a gratuitously loud BOOM.
KELLOGG — A time for reflection, a time for honoring, a time for celebrating.
The Veterans Day ceremony at the Silver Valley Veteran’s Memorial in the Kellogg City Park hit all of these marks on Monday morning.
Pastor Art Flemming gave a brief, but stirring oration revolving around the treatment of veterans and how their sacrifice really paved the way for the American people to be free.
He also addressed how the celebration of Veterans Day has become almost like PR stunt and how the public should reflect on simply being better when it comes to honoring these men and women.
“It occurs to me that moments like this, that our celebrations of the men and women who served and can be used as self-serving things,” Flemming said. “We have sporting events, we have politicians, we have churches, and schools that honor vets sometimes for public relations purposes rather than genuine appreciation. I grew up during the Vietnam war and during that season our nation’s veterans were seldom appreciated by the mainstream media, by our educational system, even by politicians, and often by those of us in the public. Hopefully much of what we see today is an attempt to make that right.”
Flemming addressed how these veterans served, not because they belong to one side or the other, but because they wanted to make certain that America always stays free.
Where you can freely worship as you please, freedom to choose any side of the political spectrum, freedom to even support whatever football team you may desire.
With nothing to personally gain from their service to their country.
“Those who serve do not serve as Seahawk or 49er fans. They don’t serve primarily as Republicans or Democrats, Catholics or Lutherans,” Flemming said. “They’re not serving to sell products or gain influence, or as an avenue to riches. Theirs is the heroic willingness to work, fight and serve so that all of us can be free to be a Republican or a Democrat, a Baptist or an Episcopal. Free to learn information and form opinions, free to speak. Theirs is not to serve themselves but this nation of people, often people have very different values than their own. They fight for the right for all of us to hold them. Theirs is the responsibility to ensure our well-being, protect our laws, and they do this often unnoticed and underappreciated. Today we want to say, thank you for serving.”
Flemming wrapped the ceremony up with a prayer, asking for spiritual peace for all veterans in their everyday lives and that those who need it, get the help that is available to them.
The ceremony wrapped up with the (now) traditional firing of the Howitzer Cannon that is positioned inside the memorial grounds.