Members and guests attending the Center Hill CDC’s annual Sponsor’s Appreciation Supper were greeted with the aroma of home cooked food as they entered the door.

Club president Robin Doerner welcomed everyone attending the May 14, 2018, meeting. Doerner’s quote for the month was especially fitting with the upcoming Memorial Day observance: “This Nation will remain the Land of the Free only so long as it is the Home of the Brave.”  Elmer Davis.

Cathy Clearman’s devotional presentation was on Memorial Day, with information from the website allabouthistory.org.

“The meaning of Memorial Day is that it is a day of honor. Memorial Day was first widely observed in May 1868.  The celebration commemorated the sacrifices of the Civil War and the proclamation was made by General John A. Logan. Following the proclamation, participants decorated graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. In years since World War I, the day has become a celebration of honor for those who died in all America’s wars,” Clearman said.

“Originally set for May 30, in 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday. The United States celebrates this holiday on the last Monday of May.

“President Ronald Reagan is credited with reviving the practice of honoring Memorial Day and its meaning. Known as the great communicator, one of his famous speeches was given at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 1986. It is just as poignant today as it was then and I would like to read it to you.

“Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in the cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.

“I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by.  Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout for a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

“Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and Admiral Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI’s general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

“Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper’s son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, ‘I know we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.’ Audie Murphy is here. Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, ‘Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.’

“Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn’t wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward — in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They’re only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

“Oliver Wendell Homes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on ‘Holmes dissenting in a sordid age.’ Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: ‘At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight.’

“All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And, they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen — the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you’ve seen it — three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There’s something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there’s an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don’t really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they’re supporting each other, helping each other on.

“I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they’re still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam — boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys where were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in the war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. The chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. The seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

“And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

“That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That’s the lesson of this century and, I think of this day. And that’s all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

“Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories,” Clearman said.

Locally known artist Zena Limerick provided entertainment with a selection of patriotic songs, including “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and the perennial favorite, “God Bless the USA.”

After the meal, club members Cathy Clearman, Robin Doerner, and siblings Doreen Daniels and Kevin Salvo presented a memorial photo exhibit of family military members. Doerner requested guests and members to introduce themselves and share their family history of military involvement. There were more than 600 years of military service represented by family members in the room.

Door prizes were presented to each guest as the evening ended on somber but thought-provoking memories.  

Sponsors and clubs represented were: Judy Welge, Northeast CDC, John and Ann Watts, sponsors; William and Rachel Jones, Mississippi Farm Bureau and Northeast CDC; Drucille Fisher and Rae Carol Enzor, Long Creek, CDC; Carolyn Smith, State Games of Mississippi; Shawntel Stamper, Great Southern Bank; Robin Shelton, Trustmark Bank; Whitney Hodges, tax assessor’s office; Jo Ann Kimbrell, CDC Council president; Annette Palmer and Shirley Hutchinson, Suqualena CDC; Beverly Issacs and Bob Huff, Community Bank; Linda Cook and Faye Houston, Collinsville CDC; Kay Poole, Meridian Coca-Cola; Frank and Stacy Weins, Regions Bank and Lauderdale County Chancery Court; and Jimmy Slay.

• Submitted by Cathy Clearman, secretary/reporter.