Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995 TAG: 9505310012
SECTION: EDITORIALS PAGE: G-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES STACEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I decided to seek another church, and walked down Ludgate Hill Road and Fleet Street to St. Clement Dane's Church in the Strand. It stood alone on a traffic island in the middle of the street, autos and buses racing left and right around it. The church had been gutted during the blitz, rebuilt after the war and consecrated as the church of the Royal Air Force.
Standing before it were statues of Sir Arthur Harris, chief of Bomber Command during the war, and Lord Dowding, chief of Fighter Command. Several gray veterans paid their respects in front of the statues before entering the church, to which I was allowed admittance upon request. Around me were survivors, medals on the chests of their jackets, of the Battle of Britain. During the service, they bowed their heads when reminded of the 55,000 comrades who gave their lives to defeat the previously invincible German Luftwaffe. They were the ones who turned the tide against the spread of Nazi totalitarianism and purchased the freedom we now enjoy.
After the service I walked to Trafalgar and on to the Parliament Square, dominated by a statue of Winston Churchill. Along the way, I passed one statue after another, including one of Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery. Then I took a bus to Grosvenor Square and revisited the monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt, holding a place of prominence in the square for more than three decades.
He is presented standing before us, wearing a double-breasted suit and a long opera cape. His left hand grasps the lapel of his jacket, and his right hand, unseen beneath the cape, holds his cane, glimpsed emerging from the folds of the cape at the side of his right leg. He is presented to us in statue as he presented himself in life, standing tall, confident and determined.
Farther on, near the steps of the American Embassy, is a statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower, dressed in his eponymous jacket and wearing a field cap. His hands are on his hips, and he faces the building that housed the Supreme Allied Command Headquarters. From that office he took responsibility for assembling the greatest armada ever created to cross the channel and liberate Europe.
Viewing these statues, I was reminded that these remarkable heroes who gave so much in service to their country and to the world community have no monuments to them in their native capital city. In fact, none of the heroes of the Second World War has been so memorialized. Washington, D.C., is replete with statues of Civil War leaders, but there are no reminders of Gens. George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Mark Clark, George Patton, nor of Adms. Chester Nimitz or William Halsey.
These were among the leaders who secured our liberty. Marshall and MacArthur also were involved in mediating a peace that has brought prosperity and democratic government to Western Europe and Japan, a peace that has lasted a remarkably long 50 years.
The lack of tribute is an amazing omission. These monuments do more than honor past leaders, at least as they are seen in England. They honor public service and commitment to public good. They suggest that good deeds will not be forgotten, that public service and sacrifice will be honored.
The statues honor not only those individuals but also the people who hold them in grateful esteem. How have we in America missed this? Why don't we honor those who have served us so well?
James Stacey is director of the Division of Media and Information Services at the American Medical Association.
- The Washington Post
by CNB