YOUR VIEW: Remembering names on Veterans Day

Reader opinion By Reader opinion The Birmingham News
on November 12, 2012 at 9:32 PM, updated November 12, 2012 at 9:37 PM
An ancient Egyptian proverb says, "To speak the names of the dead is to make them live again."

What's in a name? Today, even more than on an average day, many made their way to the Vietnam Memorial commemorating the lives lost in a tragic war. Some came to be close again to that son, daughter, sister, brother, father or mother. Some came to honor those who received no honor from their country although they sacrificed their lives. Some came to touch, to trace, to feel, to connect, to remember.

Yet each of those names, although part of a great multitude, stands out on its own. Each name represents a life--a person who fit a certain description, a person whose image is still imprinted in someone's memory, a person whose memories fill someone's heart. Each name represents a history of places, conversations, shared laughter, joyous occasions, and tragic reminders. Each name represents something other than the idealized hero who gave his or her life "for the cause" although "the cause" was called into question. Each name represents a real flesh-and-blood human with flaws and failures to go along with the admirable traits. Many names represent those who had no choice but to go to war. Many names represent those who were themselves convicted about the war in which they served.

Each name represents a hole left in someone's family, a hole left in someone's community, a hole left in someone else's future. Celebrations that will never be shared. Memories that will never be made. The "everyday-ness" of life. 

But still, there are so many other names that are not on this memorial because they made it back home. Names of those who were hated by the country for whom they fought. Names of those who performed their duty. Names of those who came home shell-shocked and tormented by the horrors of war. Names of those who carry the cost of war in their bodies and minds to this very day. Names of those who couldn't fit back into their families, who couldn't put it all together again. Names of the walking wounded. Names of their families that were never the same again. 

Each of these names--those of the living and the dead--represents the cost of war that goes beyond dollars and cents. By going to read their names, by reaching out to touch their names, by carrying away our own reminders, we allow those names to live once again.

To all who have born the costs of war, Happy Veterans Day.

Dollie Howell Pankey