Veterans' Day, redux

Dear Readers,
     I was reviewing recent posts and noticed that my entry for Nov. 10 had never made it into print.  I have no idea why, but I did write it and I want you to read it.  It was entitled "Veterans' Day," and here it is in its entirety.

In the Strohl’s Valley one-room school where I attended fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, our tiny library contained a book by the World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle entitled Brave Men.  It was an odd choice for an elementary school, but I loved that book.  Pyle’s columns did not glorify war or talk about the nobility of combat.  Instead, they reported on the average American fighting man and detailed his tribulations and his quiet dedication.  Pyle was killed in the Pacific theater just a few weeks before the war ended.

About fifteen years ago Linda and I were driving on Route 36 in western Indiana and noticed that the small town of Dana had a museum dedicated to Ernie Pyle.  We drove north to the town, toured the museum, and bought a publication featuring some of Pyle’s writings.  As we drove west we took turns reading the columns, still incredibly moving some 50 years after the end of World War II.  

We noticed that all of the other visitors were older than we were.  They were vets, paying homage to a man who wrote about infantrymen living and dying in rain and mud.  We wondered who would visit that museum when the vets died off. 

Today an article in the New York Times reported that the state of Indiana took Pyle’s typewriter and some of his artifacts and then closed the museum.  It was too far from a major urban area and had too few visitors.  Volunteers in the town are trying to keep it open on a part-time basis with donations.  I hope they succeed.

A note on mandatory voting

Janette from Belgium sent me an email commenting on the recent post supporting mandatory voting.  Here’s what she wrote:  “We have mandatory voting in Belgium, so everyone stays home for the weekend.  The word is, don’t go early or you will be recruited to work.  Other than that, as everyone is in town, it is always a good weekend to plan something with friends without people having to arrange mutually agreeable dates week in advance due to conflicting activities.   Yeah, people here are getting as busy as they are in the states.”