Editorial: This holiday: Time to reflect, come together

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If you stick around town for this three-day weekend, add meaning and reflection to your holiday by attending the parade and Memorial Day program Monday morning.

This year’s service brings renewed significance. Pastor Kevin Humphrey from Abundant Life Church will bless the newly designated veterans memorial site at Greenwood Cemetery.

Readers will recall that a large volunteer effort has begun to build this memorial in 2008. Fundraising relies heavily on selling commemorative granite pavers. Those will bear individual inscriptions and line the path around the memorial. Check your local bank for a display and paver samplers for sale.

As part of the Monday morning program, combat veterans Bob Phillipps, Arnold Roen, Chuck O’Connell, Neil Anderson and Karl Schotter are expected to speak about their wartime experiences and voice support for the proposed memorial.

As for the rest of Memorial Day program, notable American Legion officers Howie Nelson and Tom Caflisch will speak. So will Marie Deja, Legion Auxiliary president. The Croix Chordsmen Chorus and high school marching band will perform musical selections. Local veteran Doug Johnson will be there to give his rendition of “Taps.”

The hour-long program starts at 10 a.m. Monday at Greenwood Cemetery on East Division Street. If the weather’s bad, the program moves indoors to nearby Meyer Middle School.

A 9:30 a.m. parade, with the school marching band, Scouts and a color guard, sets off from American Legion Hall, 701 N. Main St., and proceeds to the cemetery. Feel free to line the curb and cheer the procession on.

Early risers can also catch these shorter Memorial Day service programs: 7 a.m. Kinnickinnic Cemetery; 7:20 a.m. Mann Valley Cemetery; 8 a.m. Glass Valley Cemetery; 8:30 a.m. Cherma Cemetery; 9 a.m. St. Bridget Cemetery.

Since 9/11, servicemen and women in Afghanistan and Iraq have been asked to go to great lengths and sacrifice on behalf of country. Monday at Greenwood Cemetery is our time to reflect on not only their patriotism but of those who’ve taken the same path before.

Our editorial last week urged Gov. Jim Doyle and local state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf to follow through on their comments to make a third drunk driving conviction a felony.

The Journal’s online poll question this week asked: When should drunk driving be a felony? Most respondents wanted to make drunk driving a felony even before the third offense! The results: