Andrew Friedmann's Memorial Day Address

Select Board member Andrew Friedmann's Memorial Day address at Charles Lawn Cemetery:

Before focusing on the main purpose of this day, I feel that it is appropriate for us to express our deepest gratitude to the living who have served, or still serving, our nation. We honor and thank the people who have lost family and friends who gave the ultimate sacrifice while in our military. We thank father’s like Arthur MacDonald, who shared with us the loss of his son earlier today.

But today is not for those who served and lived, it is for those who served and died. On Memorial Day, we remember those who never returned. We remember them by planting flags - in front of our schools, on our lawns, and in our graveyards. We remember them by marching in their honor, with private ceremonies and in with public speeches at cemeteries.

On this day of remembrance, the most prominent emotion I feel is deep sorrow. Most of the people we remember today were young, their lives cut short in the service of our country. In stories told by fellow soldiers, we learn the details of how these young people lost their lives. In his book “What It Is Like to Go to War,” Karl Marlantes writes of a friend’s last, heroic moments. Karl Marlantes was a marine who served in Vietnam. His friend, nicknamed “Canada,” was a 6-4 kid from British Columbia who served in Marlantes’ platoon. Canada was badly wounded while assaulting a hill. Yet this did not stop him from leaving the shell hole where he was being treated, grab an M-16 from another wounded marine, and charged an enemy machine gun that had pinned down his platoon. His charge relieved his friends, allowed them to take the hill, but cost Canada his life.

Make no mistake, Marlantes does not glorify war. His book is a jarringly honest account of war. Canada, along with many other men and women, died young. They will never know the joys and sorrows offered by a long, adult life. They can no longer enjoy life in the land of the living.

Their sacrifice is a debt we can never repay, but it is a debt we can remember. I choose to remember the fallen by learning their stories. For I cannot remember what I don’t know. Their stories can be found in many places, in books, on the internet, and in talking with people who knew them. I invite you to become familiar with some of these stories and allow yourself to feel, on a very personal level, for these soldiers who have died. The details will make your heart ache, but what better way to remember their sacrifice than with an aching heart.

Photo of Reading's Memorial Day services by Bob Holmes