Veterans Day speaker issues plea for unity, justice

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Esther Coffelt, foreground, and Georgia Sheridan place memorial wreaths Saturday during Veterans Day ceremonies at the Maryville Post 100 American Legion hall. About 75 people attended the remembrance, which was followed by the post’s traditional ham-and-bean dinner.

Following Saturday’s packed Freedom Rock Plaza dedication in Franklin Park, about 70 veterans and their families gathered for a smaller but equally heartfelt Veterans Day ceremony at the Post 100 headquarters across the street from Beal Park in east Maryville.

This year’s speaker was 62-year American Legion member Bob Bohlken, a retired Northwest Missouri State University professor of communication who served as a field hospital corpsman stationed in Germany in the mid-1950s.

During his remarks, Bohlken said that many modern-day threats to the United States are internal, as opposed to the external foes, such as the former Soviet Union, that the nation faced during the Cold War against communism, which lasted from the late 1940s through the early 1990s.

He continued that domestic controversies, including professional football players “taking a knee” during the national anthem, are representative of new conflicts that often pit Americans against each other and revolve around actual or perceived “injustice, hate and prejudice.”

Rather than strike an overtly patriotic note, Bohlken simply thanked all veterans for their service and asked his audience to recite with him the “Prayer of Saint Francis,” which he said he hoped would serve as a call for all citizens to take a stand against disunity.

The famous prayer reads in part: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy …”

In addition to Bohlken’s talk, the ceremony included the laying of memorial wreaths by Esther Coffelt and Georgia Sheridan and the display of a POW/MIA table — an empty place setting with an upturned glass, red rose and small U.S. flag representing the absence of service personnel captured or unaccounted for in time of war.

Service branch anthems were performed by vocalist Telina Conover accompanied by Anita Dew on piano. Conover and Dew also led the crowd in singing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a Union anthem written in 1861 by Julia Ward Howe shortly after the start of the Civil War.

The annual memorial event, which was followed by the traditional Post 100 ham-and-bean dinner, concluded outside the Legion Hall with a 21-gun salute and the playing of “Taps.”

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Professor Emeritus Bob Bohlken, a 62-year member of Maryville’s American Legion Post 100, delivers the keynote address Saturday during Veterans Day ceremonies at the post’s headquarters across the street from Beal Park. Rather than focusing on overtly patriotic themes, Bohlken issued a call for unity, justice and understanding during a time of deep national divisions. He then led his audience in reciting the “Prayer of St. Francis.”

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Members of American Legion Post 100 present the colors Saturday during Veterans Day ceremonies that also included a 21-gun salute, a tribute to POW/MIAs and the playing of “Taps.”