Submitted by Ashley Howard
I am embarrassed to say having spent the last three years going to college in Washington, DC that the last time I visited Arlington Cemetery was when I was visiting Washington during the last inauguration. That's right ... four years ago. It was this realization that propelled my visit. Although cold, it was a beautiful, blue sky day.
Approaching the cemetery, one walks past an often overlooked monument dedicated to the Seabees, or the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion responsible for base building during World War II. At the bottom is a quote that says "with willing hearts ... the difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer." These words floated through my head as I passed through the wrought iron gates and I stepped onto hallowed ground. Immediately a feeling of humility overwhelmed me. The men and women buried here gave what Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion." This would not be the last time I thought of Lincoln during my walk.
Almost immediately I left the stream of visitors making their way to Kennedy's grave and further up the hill to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I would not be visiting them. For it was the other 300,000 plus men and women buried at Arlington that called to me. I talked to the graves, occasionally stopping to upright a wreath or straighten flowers, as I passed. Veterans from all the nation's wars - from the American Revolution through to the wars still being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan - are buried in this cemetery. But it quickly struck me that it was not just soldiers buried at Arlington, but wives, husbands, and children too. There are nineteen astronauts, twelve Supreme Court justices, two presidents, and 3,800 slaves, all Americans and each with their own unique story.
As I walked I let them talk to me. To each I thanked him. I thanked Mr. Gill from the District of Columbia. I thanked Sarah who lay next to her husband David. I thanked army privates and navy lieutenants. People of all faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I thanked a man who lay under a tomb that proudly bore the inscription "the 6th African American graduate of the US naval academy." I thanked a man who had been born in 1892, a man who had died in 1944, a person who had served in Korea, another who had died in Vietnam, and a woman who had died only seven months ago. I stopped.
I stood at Jessica's grave. I didn't know her, but I felt a connection with her. She was twenty-two the same age as me. She died May 11th. She had a purple heart, a bronze star; she died in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Someone had tucked two photographs next to her headstone. Wearing her uniform she smiled proudly. She was beautiful. She was someone's daughter, someone's sister. She was loved. I wanted to take a photograph of the blue and yellow flowers that had been left, but it didn't feel right. I stood there humbly.
It was getting dark. It was getting cold. I started walking back to the main gates. A woman stepped out of a section of World War II veterans' graves. Her father, I thought. Our paths had crossed earlier. Somewhere between the Columbarium and Jessica's grave, she had had flowers. She didn't have them now. I didn't want to impede her visit. I smiled. She smiled back. We parted, two strangers in the night. Two people who had come to honor those who lay inurned the ground.
Lincoln famously said in 1863, "... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Less than a year later the first service member was buried at Arlington. Lincoln did the difficult. With Lincoln's fight this nation did not perish during the Civil War, though 620,000 American servicemen did. It is a fight that started when tea was thrown into the Boston Harbor. It is a fight that is continued each day, by every American. It is a sacrifice marked by each white tomb stone at Arlington. As a nation we suffered to get where we are today, to this historic moment. But in never forgetting those that came before us, each of us keeps doing the impossible. I vowed to come back. I wanted to bring back flowers. I wanted to thank Jessica.
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