Members of the Lansdale VFW salute the fallen on Memorial Day.
A trio of private ceremonies overlapped at Memorial Park on Monday morning, as area residents, veterans and first responders paid their respects to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.
For members of the Ruck to Remember, the day began bright and early as members gathered to embark on a six-mile road march across Lansdale Borough. The group had initially intended to participate in the annual Ruck to Remember in Washington D.C., but after that event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to symbolically finish the last leg of the march in the borough.
The group arrived at Memorial Park just before 10 a.m., and circled around the war memorial as bagpipes played Amazing Grace.
At the same time, the ruck club encountered a small delegation from the Lansdale Borough Police Department, along with Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert, who had planned a small, private recognition ceremony to ensure that proper respects were paid on Memorial Day.
As the two groups combined to pay their respects, members of the Lansdale VFW arrived to lay flowers at the memorial. After the playing of Taps and offering a final salute to the fallen, the impromptu ceremony came to a conclusion and the groups went their separate ways.
Herbert, along with Lansdale Borough Police Chief Michael Trail and several officers, moved to the Penndale Memorial Garden, where they offered a salute and words of remembrance during a private ceremony. Per Herbert:
Today, we honor all those who were so brave to offer themselves to the cause of our great country and remember those who sacrificed everything so that we all might endure and prosper.
Sacrifice means to surrender, relinquish, or permit injury, for the sake of something more or something greater than one’s self. The loved ones that we remember today were as diverse and as varied as our country and yet it is their similar purpose, shared values, and sacrifice that is most instructive. They stood firm against insurmountable odds and bravely stepped forward in service of our country, our communities, and our families.
While their actions shall never be forgotten it is their undying belief in a higher purpose that drove them and sustained them that I find myself reflecting on and finding inspiration in. As Theodore Roosevelt rightly states,
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the [person] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat"
We all should be so bold as to sacrifice for each other. The greatest honor we can bestow upon every person who sacrificed their life for us is to reflect on what it means to sacrifice for each other and how we can honor their dedication to our country and the virtues that drive us forward.
After they departed, state Rep. Steve Malagari arrived to pay his respects, as did several residents whose family members’ names adorn the memorial.
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