Taps on the terrace of Kingston City Hall
KINGSTON – Another day of fine holiday weather in Kingston, with spectators lining both sides of Broadway outside City Hall, waiting to watch the marching bands, fire trucks, and civic groups parade in honor of Memorial Day.
Mayor Steven Noble and Congressman John Faso made remarks, Rabbi Yitzchak Hecht gave a blessing, and the Kingston High School Alumni Choir sung the Star Spangled Banner.
Kingston Veterans Association President Bill Forte delivered remarks, as he does every year, dismissing the pomp, and instead underscoring the actual purpose of Memorial Day.
“You see, Memorial Day is not a holiday for festivities. It is a day of remembrance. If you want to know the true meaning, visit Arlington National Cemetery, or your local VA hospital – not Disneyland or the beach. We create monuments and then forget the meaning.”
Forte said Americans should “say a prayer, then another. Remember the fallen heroes for all the good they did, when they were here with us. Reach out, and let a veteran know that you are there because we are losing too many of them, too fast.”
He also pointed attention to the more than 20 veterans who take their own lives each day, here in this country. “They are veterans that came back, from where we sent them, with wounds that are not visible, and could not be treated with surgery and bandages,” Forte noted. He said they served their country “honorably, to the best of their ability. We are taught how to act in battle, what to do, in order to complete our mission and survive. But how could you be prepared for the horrors of war?”
Forte said the veteran is “left with only memories and pictures in your mind, and we all deal with it differently – or not.”
