A Table for Remembrance of POWs/MIA Soldiers in Rancho Santa Margarita

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — An empty chair at a set table set for one will remain all week at the quiet lounge of the Bell Tower Regional Community Center. This, in quiet testimony of the POWs and MIA soldiers who the city of Rancho Santa Margarita pledges to never forget.

"Those who have served and those currently serving the United States Uniformed Services are ever mindful that the sweetness of enduring peace has always been tainted by the bitterness of personal sacrifice," the city posted on its website. "We are compelled never to forget that while we enjoy our daily pleasures, there are others who have endured and may still be enduring the agonies of pain, deprivation, and internment."

These, the Prisoners of War and those pronounced Mission in Action, are being paid a great tribute.

"This table, set for one, is small, symbolizing the frailty of one prisoner, alone against his or her suppressors," they said.

The empty table is symbolic in many ways.

• A white tablecloth, symbolic of purity of their intentions to respond to their country's call to arms.
• A single red rose to remind of the family and friends, of our missing comrades, who keep the faith, while awaiting their return.
• A solitary red ribbon symbolizes the unyielding determination for a proper accounting of all who are lost, who have yet to be discovered.
• A slice of lemon on the plate reminds us of their bitter fate.
• The salt sprinkled on the plate reminds us of the countless fallen tears of families as they wait.
• The glass is inverted - they cannot toast with us this night.
• The chair is empty - they are not here.
• The candle is reminiscent of the light of hope which lives in our hearts to illuminate their way home, away from their captors, to the open arms of a grateful Nation.