Memorial Day Service Respects Troops Lost in Iraq

An ecumenical, interdenominational Peace Memorial Meditation Service will be held on Monday May 26 at 2 p.m. at the Rost family farm on Rost Road exit off of Route 50, located 9.6 miles east of the I-77 interchange near Dallison, just outside of Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The John Rost farm maintains a field of white crosses as a Peace Memorial to over 4,000 soldiers killed in Iraq in the last 5 years. (Those who have read my blog may remember the photos of Mr. Rost and the field of crosses.)

Area speakers include: Pastor Dave Jackson, Devola OH Congregational; Rev Kathryn Hawbacker, Marietta OH Unitarian; Rev. Jim Lewis Charleston WV Episcopal; Mr. Art Gish, Athens OH Christian Peacemaker Teams; and Fr. John Finnell, Ravenswood WV Catholic Parish. Each is a peacemaker in their own way.

The service will have an inter-faith focus with moments of silent meditation, on desires for peace and diffuculties in achieving it. It will honor those patriots who have paid the ultimate price in service to their country. Sponsor is Mid-Ohio Valley Peace Initiative (MOVPI), a regional secular peace advocacy group whose mission statement addresses the issue of the war in Iraq, and is dedicated to local, national, and global peacemaking.

The public is invited to attend, no charge, and are asked to bring their lawn chairs. Those wishing to bring an optional picnic lunch are welcome to set-up on the lawn before or after the service. Those who are able are asked to stay after service to assist in a work party to help maintain the thousands of crosses in place. For more information, contact Lynn Cady in Marietta at 740-374-2969 or Ray Foss in Parkersburg at 304-428-5056.

Can It Be This Simple?

I wrote this at least two years ago, I think. Sadly, the situation in the Middle East has not changed much. The poem was inspired by a news story about an elderly woman planting olive trees even though war raged in her homeland and she probably would not live to see the trees bear fruit.

With my son Derek back in the war zone, the poem has much more meaning to me.

SIMPLICITY

Come, child
let us plant a garden
drop our seeds in soil
though all the earth be crazed
with fear and war
We plant
as do old Iraqi women
cleaning ruin of mortar shells
from olive groves
to find new growth
in old dust

We plant
as did our neighbor
who at ninety-three
planted a lilac bush
that would not bloom
for seven years
Come, child
do not listen to news
of mayhem and destruction
drop your seeds carefully
watch with me
for tender shoots
of peace