ShareThisANDERSON, S.C. - This nation was created by people who knew that to be free carried responsibility. America is kept free by men and women who accept that responsibility and defend our principles, even when the ultimate price may be paid for that defense.
Today we remember the veterans of all our wars, those men and women who knew that freedom still needs defending, even within our own nation.
We remember especially Frank Buckles, the last living U.S. World War I veteran, who died in February, peacefully in his home near Charles Town, W.Va. He was 110 years old.
And we remember another man, Anderson County, S.C., native Cpl. Freddie Stowers, the first African-American awarded the Medal of Honor for World War I.
Stowers was only 21 when he died on Sept. 28, 1918, six weeks before the end of the war. According to Arlington National Cemetery archives, he was killed as he led a squad from the all-black 371st Infantry Regiment into no-man's land in France and defeated a unit of German troops. His commanding officer recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but the nomination languished for 70 years -- "misplaced," the Army said.
In 1988, after two congressmen resurrected the case, President George H.W. Bush awarded the medal posthumously to Stowers' two surviving sisters. Bush's remarks that day were as touching as an old soldier's salute:
"It's been said that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge. On September 28th, 1918, Corporal Freddie Stowers stood poised on the edge of such a challenge and summoned his mettle and his courage."
Today, the representation of that war and these two men is being dedicated on East Greenville Street in Anderson. "The Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue is once again a part of Anderson's landscape and its legacy. The replacement statue, created by sculptor Maria J. Kirby-Smith, stands tall and proud in front of American Legion Post No. 14 -- and guarded now by a surveillance camera, should anyone else attempt to re-create the crime of still-unknown vandals who broke him into more than 50 pieces and left him behind.
Veterans Day evening, 85 men and women from Anderson County who died during World War I are scheduled to be honored at the museum with an honor guard, the Pledge of Allegiance and a reading of "In Flanders Fields."
That short poem, only 15 lines, was written by Lt. Col. John McCrae (1872-1918) of the Canadian army. As he wrote, he was looking at the grave of a friend and former student, just steps away from the battlefield, where he gave up his much-needed rest to write. It was, said one witness to McCrae's efforts, "an exact description of the scene in front of us both."
"In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row, that mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce heard amid the guns below.
"We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders fields."
We live free every day. We should not reserve our gratitude for only once a year.
(Bonnie Williams is the editorial page editor of the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail. Email williamsbc(at)independentmail.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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