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Tuesday, June 1, 1999
By GUY PRIEL Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM -- About 200 people braved the chilly winds and threatening rain clouds on Monday to celebrate Minnesota's honored dead. Richard and Bonnie Martinson of Winter Park, Fla., who were passing through on their way to visit relatives in South Dakota, stopped at the cemetery when they saw members of the New Ulm Battery on their horses. "We were intrigued with the display of the cannons and horses and decided we would stop to see what type of celebration was being planned," Richard said. "This was one of the most impressive celebrations I have been a part of in a long time." The Martinsons are natives of Gaylord and Richard is a World War II veteran. They have lived in Florida since 1983. Paul Martinson of rural St. James brought his family to the cemetery so they could visit the grave of his father, a veteran of the Korean War. "I was really touched by today's ceremony," he said. "I felt like I had 200 family members helping celebrate my father's life. I was so proud when I saw my son saluting the flag. So few children do that these days." Veterans of Foreign War Commander Wilbert Burdorf, who served as master of ceremonies, stated that he was impressed with the efforts of the city and the county to honor veterans and he only saw one empty flagpole while driving around town. "It bothers me when people don't salute the flag when it goes by, or when they burn a flag," he said. "Freedom is never free." Chief Master Sergeant Burdorf, a native of Hamburg and a graduate of Glencoe High School, retired from the Air National Guard in 1994. He served in the Air Force during the Cuban Crisis and the Vietnam War. "We are here today in celebration of time lost and time gained," Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Bernie Melter said during the memorial address. A retired gunnery sergeant with the Marine Corps, he lives in Cannon Falls and was appointed to his position by Gov. Ventura in 1998 and Gov. Carlson in 1991. "We often say we are honoring those who gave their lives," he said. "That is an inaccurate phrase. They did not give their lives, their lives were taken from them." He stated that many people gathered there were perhaps looking for promised parts of lives that were never lived, lives that were frozen in time. "These lives are honored because they were lost in an unrealized plan for world peace," he said. "We honor them because we hope to be able to find some answers and spend a few more minutes to buy back what time they lost." Melter stated that the people being honored on this Memorial Day were to be honored by everyone because the living need to remember what happened and what those lost lives might have become. "These people did what they could in an attempt to improve the human condition," he said. "Time is a commodity that is more rare and more precious than we realize." During the service, New Ulm High School graduate Adam Olson read the Gettysburg Address. "It is amazing how timely those words still are," rural Winthrop resident Stephen Isaacson said. "Hearing the Gettysburg Address read during a service like this always brings tears to my eye." He stated that it is ironic, because in the speech, Lincoln made the comment that the world would not long remember what was said, but would forever remember what was done. "It is ironic, because his words are as remembered as the events that lead up to those words," Isaacson said. "That is the key to Memorial Day. To always remember what was done in an attempt to protect our freedoms. Days like this make me proud to be an American." Memorial Day, begun in Waterloo, New York on May 5, 1866, was set aside as a day to honor those who fell during the Civil War. In 1868, the date was set as May 30 and the popularity spread nationwide following the Spanish-American War in 1898. In 1971, the federal government enacted a law that established the last Monday in May as Memorial Day, where it has remained ever since.
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