Thoughts for 2010 — click on the title to continue
- Date: 21 Dec, 2009 at 4:48PM,
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One of these wreaths at the Arlington National Cemetery is at a grave of a young American soldier, with a Chinese name and a Buddhist sign on his tombstone. I placed the wreath by that grave this month, during the action “Wreaths across America.” Thousands of Americans came to honor their veterans during this event.
While placing the wreaths, I thought about my father. He flew with the British RAF during World War II. Instead of receiving honors, he spent ten years as a political prisoner because after WWII the American and the Russians were no longer allies.
Arlington Cemetery is visited yearly by 4.5 million people. As I walked among the graves of the young soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was thinking how important it is not to forget the sacrifices made by our parents as well as all the other victims of the former totalitarian regimes in Europe and elsewhere. We ought to learn from the American parents who came to Arlington Cemetery with their young children, from the teacher who brought his class of pupils, and from the groups of teenagers who were not only honoring their veterans, but remembering the past. We need to learn how to help, in our case, Czech students understand that learning historical “facts” is not enough. They need to know that it is even more important to learn how to understand and how to participate in civic engagements.
With this challenge, I wish you all the best in 2010.
Jana Švehlová
Redakce: Zuzana Vittvarová