12,000, again

Editor’s note: Following is a repeat of an essay first published Dec. 13, 2009, following the overwhelming success of the first Christmas Honors. The essay is republished here as a reminder of the 2010 Christmas Honors effort. Link here for info on the Dec. 10-11 events and how you may help.

“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate … we can not consecrate … we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”
— portion of the Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln

Green and red created stunning lines of salute amid the brown, white and gray of grass, stone and sky. The 12,000 wreaths laid against each headstone at the Fort Smith National Cemetery on Saturday reflected the mixture of intangible respectful remembrance with the cold order of military precision.

To not be moved briefly or frequently with a need to fight back tears or fight a lump in the throat, or to even have a breathless moment, would be to have no visceral appreciation of the historical and necessary sacrifice our fellow citizens and soldiers made for country, family and you and me.

However, reflection finds that a source of the emotion is possibly an equal part admiration for the thousands of volunteers who helped pull off what was just an idea less than eight weeks ago; a civic love, if you will, for the hundreds who gave their time and money to ensure that this community of communities would follow through on an idea to acknowledge immeasurable honor with the simple act of placing a wreath against a headstone.

Indeed, as Lincoln noted, their is little we can do within our “poor power” to make more sacred the few acres we have devoted to the burial of our military men and women.

While it is wholly appropriate we act to remember their sacrifice, our remarkable collective actions to place 12,000 wreaths is as much for the living as it is for the dead — which is Lincoln’s encouragement that from the “honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”

This effort has increased such devotion in the hundreds of area school children and young adults who helped the “Christmas Honors” project succeed. Parents with small children were seen at the cemetery quietly explaining the significance of the wreath or what it was Grandpa or Uncle or Aunt did in service to country. And those who believe such devotion is a diminishing commodity must have been heartened by the often overwhelming and always orderly crowd that gathered to help prepare and place the wreaths.

Perhaps the biggest lesson, if not reminder, in all this is how our communities came together to accomplish for the first time this tremendous task of directing logistics, finance and people as if it were a traditional and privileged job we do every month.

So it is, then, that the men and women buried at the Fort Smith National Cemetery continue their service by providing us the opportunity to increase our constructive connections to the living through our dutiful devotion to honor the dead.

May the circle be unbroken.