By David Gordon, News Editor
Late Wednesday night, Nov. 11, while putting this week's issue of The Chronicle together, the staff realized that the University had done nothing to commemorate Veteran's Day.
We may be wrong, so if we are, someone please let us know.
Needless to say, one group, the College Republicans, did something to celebrate. Members of the College Republicans told me that they celebrated Veteran's Day by visiting the Veteran's Memorial Statue on campus and participated in a moment of silence to memorialize and remember those who have served and those who are currently serving. They recited the Pledge of Allegiance and then discussed how the ramifications of war affect the University community.
I couldn't believe that this was the only group on campus to commemorate the holiday. A search of the University's website revealed no scheduled events, which was odd. If only for the purely self-serving fact that it was a "Dean's Day" and even, say, a cursory moment of silence could have been used to show the idea of "community spirit."
I took a few moments to remember my grandfather Herman. He died two years this past Saturday, and would always proudly recall his World War II memories, fighting alongside Spiro T. Agnew and a variety of other luminaries. In fact, he would frequently mention that Agnew was a guest at his wedding. Later in life, Agnew magically became Herman's best man. A few weeks before he died, his stories were filmed by WLIW (Channel 21) for a program they were doing on local war stories. Herman told this one and many others. He relished the opportunity. When his episode aired on Thanksgiving of 2007, a few weeks after he died, we laughed away our tears.
Whether or not the stories were true went to the grave with Herman. However, he told the stories with such conviction that my family couldn't help but believe them. We have a DVD of the broadcast and the raw footage. I haven't been able to bring myself to watch them. Writing this has really made me curious and feel the need to watch it. Perhaps this weekend I will dust it off.
In the middle of wartime, it's just a bit ridiculous that nothing was done by the University to commemorate Veteran's Day. I don't support the wars that we've gotten ourselves into, but I still took the time to remember the sacrifices that our soldiers have and currently are making for our country.
While I'm sure (well, I hope) that the University officials did the same, it would have been nice if there were a public display of it.