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Date: 6/8/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Americans need to remember the “sacred trust we share with all who have served,” Tracy Taylor said at the town’s Memorial Day ceremony on May 30.
Taylor, who lost her son, Army Spc. Kenneth Iwasinski, in Iraq in 2007, said all people should support veterans and the families of those who die in war.
It’s because of those who died in war, and those who are willing to die to protect the United States, that Americans are safe – the essential need that allows all other freedoms to flourish, Taylor said.
“They say security is like oxygen: If you have it, you don’t think about it,” she said. “If you don’t have it, it’s all you think about.”
That theme was echoed by the day’s other keynote speaker, Richard Connor of Agawam, state commander of the Disabled American Veterans. Connor read “Home of the Free Because of the Brave,” a poem that lists many of the freedoms Americans enjoy – free speech, freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial – and says it is the soldier, not the artist or priest or lawyer, who secures these rights.
West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt and state Rep. Michael Finn read proclamations before placing a ceremonial wreath below the American flag in front of Town Hall. The ceremony was moved to Central Street this year because of construction work on the Town Common. Reichelt said he may keep the ceremony there, next to a newly installed flagpole plaza and away from the traffic noise of Route 20.
Irene Lato led the pledge of allegiance, and West Springfield High School students Emily Venteletee and Nathan Kelly sang the National Anthem and sounded taps, respectively. Mustafa Thompson, president of the town’s Veterans Advisory Board, served as master of ceremonies.
Thompson, an Army veteran, asked his fellow residents to be worthy of the sacrifice made by his brothers and sisters in arms. He said they died to make America better, and to show gratitude, we should advance that work in our lives.
“They fell for liberty,” he said. “Think about the positive thing you can do for your community. To honor our fallen is to be devoted to our community, to us all.”
This ceremony was the town’s first under a new partnership between the Veterans Advisory Board and the Veterans Council, a private nonprofit group led by former Veterans Agent James Berrelli. Following criticism of the town’s failure to observe Vietnam War Veterans Day by Berrelli and other council members, Reichelt called for the two groups to work together planning future observances of holidays honoring the military.