Honoring nation’s fallen looks different today

Parades and wreath-laying ceremonies are canceled or have gone virtual, but the tributes are as heartfelt as ever.

Parades, speeches and wreath-laying ceremonies are missing this year, or look different in their virtual, socially distanced versions, but the tributes of Memorial Day are no less heartfelt than in years before this pandemic.

If anything, the sacrifices of wars throughout our history are more poignant than ever as we deal with our own burdens.

The public health crisis we now endure is unlike anything of the past 100 years, and it unwittingly created some controversy, threatening to disrupt the tradition of placing thousands of flags on veterans’ graves.

In Berks County, the state’s shutdown orders to mitigate spread of COVID-19 prevented Gilbertsville flag maker FlagZone from providing veterans groups with thousands of flags. After some tense moments and words of protest, the Wolf administration reversed its earlier ruling and granted a waiver allowing the distribution.

Coming a week before Memorial Day, the reversal cleared the way for veterans groups and volunteers to place an estimated 50,000 American flags on veterans’ graves throughout Berks County.

In Montgomery County, 59,000 flags had already been delivered to the Montgomery County Courthouse before the shutdown went into effect, but county officials decided not to allow distribution under the Department of Health guidelines that prohibit group gatherings.

Montgomery County Commissoners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh did not waver in her decision to postpone distribution until July 4th, causing a political dustup with Commissioner Joseph Gale and scrambling among veterans groups to get their own flags and place them.

By week end, state Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, announced that his office was distributing flags to local veterans groups in time for Memorial Day. Elsewhere around the region, veterans’ groups have tried to adjust to the coronavirus restrictions while still honoring those who died for their country.

In Upper Darby, members of the Marine Corps League Detachment 884 placed flags on the graves of veterans at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill. Detachment Commandant Jim Cook said the organization usually places up to 1,000 flags in the cemetery in the weeks before Memorial Day with assistance from local Boy Scout troops. This year, they were cautious during the COVID-19 pandemic not to subject anyone to unnecessary exposure. Members wore masks as they kept separated and walked through the cemetery, replacing 1,000 flags.

In West Goshen, Chester County, 44 dozen American flags were placed by 20 volunteers at the graves of vets at Saint Agnes, Oaklands and Chestnut Grove Annex cemeteries.”We do it specifically to honor all our brothers and sisters so they are not forgotten,” said Mike Ricci, U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam.

Countywide, 33,000 flags are placed on graves annually, at a cost to Chester County of $24,000.

Memorial Day also is seen as the start of summer with pools and large picnics and gatherings. Cookouts and barbecues aren’t cancelled this year, but social distancing rules require that they are limited to households or guests sitting six feet apart.

The coronavirus has in some ways caused us to pause more easily in our solitude and note the solemnity of Memorial Day as a time of reverence, remembrance and recognition of the ultimate sacrifices that were made on our behalf.

While the history of the origins of Memorial Day is sketchy, we do know that the first actual proclamation was issued by Gen. John A. Logan, national commander of the U.S. Army, declaring May 30, 1868, as the day when flowers were to be placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

That began the tradition of placing small American flags on soldiers’ graves — a tradition that brings us full circle to the challenges of Memorial Day 2020.

In our quiet and our quarantines, we have the time and perhaps a greater than usual inclination to pause and offer a simple thank you to the men and women whose lives those thousands of flag represent.

Without their grandest of sacrifice, we would not be the nation we are, equipped and prepared to rise above and overcome the new challenges facing us in this pandemic. In whatever form and distance, we do well to honor that sacrifice today and always.