Memorial Day Observation at the Iowa Building
Hyde Park Chicago
May 26, 2025
9:30 a.m.
BJW Welcome
My name is Barbara Jean Walsh, and I thank you all for attending this service, which was organized by a very small group of East Hyde Park friends and neighbors. Thank you to all who helped make this happen. You know who you are.
This morning, we will begin with a prayer. Dear neighbors, veterans, and special guests, my prayer is this:
That we soften our hearts and open up our senses
to summon the spirits, the God or gods, the philosophy,
or simply the humanity that guides us through our days.
May this summoning bring us all the strength,
the love, the wisdom, and the compassion
that we seek -- but do not always find.
We have come together in community
to acknowledge all that we have lost,
especially the lives of those
who sacrificed everything for us and our freedom.
But even as we grieve those losses,
let us not ask for retribution or vengeance.
No. Instead, let us give thanks for all that we do have.
Amen and Blessed Be.
9:35 BJW: Memorial Day History
Before I invite Commander Frank B Thompson to take over, I want to tell you a little bit about Memorial Day. The first recorded observation was in 1863, followed a few years later with a formal declaration in May 1868. In most states at that time, flowers were blooming and people were already caring for family and village cemeteries. It was a time to stop and remember the sacrifices made during our young nation’s wars, starting with the Revolution.
During the Civil War, the sacrifices were huge. Approximately ten percent of the total population was actively involved in some way, and the collateral damage was unimaginable.
Memorial Day Weekend is now important to many people only as the start of summer activities. Here, though, we have created a sacred space where we can join our veterans in grieving for the comrades they have lost.
Now Commander Frank B Thomson [FBT3] will welcome the Veterans and service members who are present this morning.
9:40 FBT3 – Roll Call
9:45 Poppy Ceremony
BJW – During the next few minutes, members of the Harold Washington American Legion post will be handing out poppies as well as copies of the poem “In Flanders Fields” while I tell you about the origin of this tradition.
FBT3 and Post Members distribute poppies.
BJW reads:
This essay is from the website for Essex Farm Cemetery which is the location in Belgium where the Canadian army doctor John McCrae wrote his famous poem.
No symbol so strongly recalls the Great Was as the poppy. The origins of the remembrance poppy are to be found in the poem by John McCrae. On the otherwise barren front, where thousands of soldiers had recently perished, he saw vast numbers of poppies blossoming. A Military graveyard full of poppies is an image the
captures the imagination and strongly evokes the ambiguity so characteristic of :the Great War.
The poppy has many aspects to it: irrepressible yet ephemeral, wilting but also uplifting. It is a vulnerable flower, on the borderline between ode and elegy. For McCrae, the poppy kept alive the memory of a young generation that was nipped in the bud before it could bloom. His words touch a chord with a great many readers.
John McCrae would not live to see his poem’s success. But in 1918, the year in which McCrae died, a young American woman became the first person to pin a silk poppy to her clothes. Her symbolic gesture was copied throughout the British Commonwealth and the poppy was soon adopted as the official symbol to be used in commemoration of the victims of the Great War.
BJW – Most of you now have a copy of the poem in Flanders Fields. Please read it with me, aloud or to yourself.
After that, we will have a few moments of silence for meditation, followed by listening to the poem as set to music, composed and performed by Anthony
Hutchcroft.
9:50 READ THE POEM
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
SILENCE
Recorded MUSIC (click to play) – IN FLANDERS FIELDS
FBT3 -- Thank You comments
BJW – closing words/benediction:
Your very presence here has made this place hallowed ground.
We must nurture the roots that are our ancestors, roots that are both deep and long. They stretch across continents and under oceans. They are centuries old. It naturally follows that the generations to come are trees – trees of every possible variety! We know we have roots and trees. So what are we? I believe that all of us are the deep rich soil in which the trees of freedom grow. And when any part of this vast system of roots, trees, and soil fails, we feel it as grief.
Your personal grief may be death of a loved one, it may be the result of ancestral wounds, or it may be the loss of your homeland, your job, or your religion. Your grief may be a quiet understanding that you are simply not the person you want to be. For our veterans, grief wears a different face because the loss of a comrade in wartime does not include an opportunity to mourn as a community. We do that here. We do that now.
Please join me in standing as you are able for our benediction:
Let us all live in a way that honors our fallen heroes. They are part of our roots now. And we must provide our roots with the best possible care.
Thank you for taking part in this ceremony. Your presence has been a blessing for me, and I hope this time together has been a blessing for all of you as well.
10:00 Recorded music: TAPS