PHOTO: Google Images
Net-Info: Flowers and Wreath-Placing at ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY –- The gift of flowers at a memorial site is a ritual that occurs around the world, understood in every culture. The floral tributes at funerals bespeak both the beauty and the brevity of life and evoke memories of other days. These sorts of offerings are made each day at Arlington National Cemetery, at the dozens of funerals occurring there and in solitary communion with a departed loved one. More formal ceremonies involve the laying of a wreath and the attendance of others at this ritual. These, too, are held with frequency at Arlington. You may have the opportunity to observe such a ceremony during your visit to Arlington. You even might be taking part in one.
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Note: Flowers and Wreaths are accepted at any grave site in the cemetery, except at the Columbarium, the above ground site containing ashes of deceased persons. (KM)
Long JFK Funeral Procession Approaching Arlington 
Caisson of JFK Enters Arlington for Internment 
Raising the Flag From the Casket During TAPS(Notice Military Personnel at Salute While Bugler Plays Out of View).
JFK's Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery (Photo by Kevin Martin; 2009)
Arlington National Cemetery is the Final Resting Place of America's 35th President, John F. Kennedy, - Interred Beneath the Eternal Flame
I find that, having visited Arlington National Cemetery this past week, the responsibility of each citizen to advocate for a more peaceful world environment is more morally imperative than ever. No one of us fragile human beings maintains a monopoly on virtue, and to see the graves of so many thousands of war dead starting with the seemingly countless number of Civil War casualties and continuing up to the present moment with those brave, selfless men and women who have fallen in either Afghanistan or Iraq, - and to bear witness to all this firsthand - naturally imposes a necessity of reflection of any person who may care about making his or her little area on this earth ever slightly better than before. It is a very demanding but positive challenge that awaits any individual. This visit with my colleagues to Arlington National Cemetery reminded me of this.
The grave site of the assassinated President, John F. Kennedy (above), also includes his late widow, Jacqueline, and their two infant children. The grave is situated in a place on a sloping hillside, over-viewed by the Custis-Lee Mansion (known today as "Arlington House"). Although JFK was this nation's military commander-in-chief, he was also a decorated naval PT-boat commander in World War II. Just 11 days before his own death, the president visited Arlington as part of a Veterans Day tribute. It is reported that he commented to an Arlington official that he found the place to be so strangely beautiful and appealing that he "could live here forever"; the solemnity and serene, simple beauty of the site deprives it of any morbidity.
In 1967, the permanent gravesite was completed, with the eternal flame surrounded by Cape Cod field stones and selections from President Kennedy's Inaugural Address etched on marble panels that face the nation's capital. The new eternal flame device was fed by an underground natural gas line designed and created by the Institute of Gas Technology of Chicago.
The Eternal Flame was Jackie Kennedy's idea, - having had seen one exactly like it at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Arc d' Triomphe in Paris during a 1961 state visit with the late president. Over time, the eternal flame has become a universal symbol that honors the loss of persons of great significance, in addition to major tragic and momentous events. (KM)
It was interesting that Jackie Kennedy debated being buried at Arlington. I never thought it would even be a question for her, but I guess she was a woman who valued her privacy towards the end of her life. I couldn't imagine her being buried somewhere else.
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ReplyDeleteGreat point you make about Jackie and her life long interest in maintaining privacy - which, I imagine, stems from her memories of the aggressive D.C. press corps, - ("pre-marriage" to JFK) - back in the early 50s when she worked as reporter/photographer for the WASHINGTON POST. She must have seen some MEAN stuff happen, first hand. Of course, any woman who sat next to her husband only to see him bloodily shot to death would most certainly want as much privacy as possible afterward. Jackie's own reservations about her final resting place being at Arlington may have been a kind of "overflow" of resentment for her, regarding the hound dog nature of a news-rabid press.
ReplyDeleteOther, but not all, big stars or celebrities of present day also have made a habit, wisely, of shunning the press. Jack Nicholson NEVER gives TV interviews, for example; nor do the young Royal Princes, or rock stars like Bruce Springsteen (save for only one 60 Minutes interview a few years ago), Oprah Winfrey (who wears "2 hats") and others as well.
Any living person TODAY who gives just 10 minutes to observing the American ("BIG MEDIA") press's sensationalistic, disingenuous, schizoid personality behavior in the now-24/7 news cycle could easily attest to the havoc it can cause in other people's lives: going all the way back to the Lindberghs in the 1930s (they packed up and went to England for 5 or 6 years), then to the odious witch-hunt against countless innocent citizens during the McCarthy-Cohn-Early Dirty Dick Nixon days, then on to the pudgy-vicious FBI Mr. Hoover's press-planted rumors and harassments of Civil Rights leaders of the 60s, and even further on to the present with proliferation of inflammatory right wing radio talk show programs, that mainly employ fear tactics in the ranting discourses as a way to maintain a grip on their angry, frightened listening audiences, who are literally scared into even more, continual listening.
The best way to avoid being endlessly talked about or trashed by the press is by remain as aloof or willfully detached as possible.
That's what Jackie did in order to hold onto to her privacy.
Arlington National Cemetary held a special place for me, as I knew someone who was buried there. My husband's grandmother, who I met briefly in Los Angeles only months before she passed away was buried in the the same plot as her husband who was a war veteran. I actually slipped away from the group on their way to the Tomb of the Unknwon Soldier so that I could take a picture of the stone, which featured one side inscripted with my husband's granfather and the other side inscripted with my husband's grandmother. I was at Arlignton when the memorial for his grandmother was held and I developed a newfound respect for the military after it. The ceremony was short, but met with the utmost respect and dignity for my husband's grandmother as she was married to a U.S. war veteran who served his country. It was as if the pastor knew these poeple, even though he did not personally. This showed me that the common thread of serving ones country is identity enough for people in the military to know and understand you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Kevin. I never equated the eternal flame here and the one in Paris, though I have visited both! It is interesting that one our national treasures, JFK's grave, should borrow heavy influence from European monuments. However, this is decidedly the case in much of Washington, though most Americans never realize it.
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ReplyDeleteTrue, Michael. But as you said in your comment on the Capitol, we do it faster and cheaper!