Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992 TAG: 9201200212
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LAYING A WAR HERO TO REST; HIS IDEALS BETRAYED
WHILE RADIO and television were reliving the beginning of World War II, we stood around a flag-draped coffin in a small Virginia cemetery. The thunderous salute of gunfire echoed through the hollows, and the cold December wind carried the final strains of taps over the gentle hills he loved, as we said goodbye to one of the war's remaining heroes.A half-century had passed since they lifted him from the foreign soil of a bloody foxhole, his young body pierced with shrapnel fragments. As for so many of our own gallant veterans, the battle did not end for him there.
Fighting continuous pain and weakness from those wounds over the years, while struggling to make a simple, honest living for the family he cherished, had not been easy for him. But he handled it with pride and dignity, just as he did every other aspect of his life.
The pain is over now, for a new day has begun for our treasured brother, a day he had looked forward to for a long time. And this we would not take away from him, even to fill this new and hurtful void in our lives, if indeed we could.
Still, when we think of all he endured for the sake of honor and integrity, and we see the ideals and principles he fought for shriveling like dead leaves all around us, our grief is mingled with a sense of anger and outrage; and there are moments when emotions run wild and we feel like shouting from the roof tops.
"Weep and howl, all ye cowardly lawmakers, who have allowed the Constitution to be twisted into a license for vileness.
"Weep and howl, all ye moral degenerates out there spewing your obscenities over the land.
"Weep and howl, all ye fraudulent rich, whose greed has brought our nation to the brink of financial ruin; twist and squirm in your cesspools of ill-gotten gains. Your new day is also about to begin - are you ready for it?" ANNE S. STONEMAN ROANOKE