Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us: A Monument Came to Visit Me or Did I Visit It?

Saturday, July 11, 2015

A Monument Came to Visit Me or Did I Visit It?

A monumemt came to visit me today, or did I visit it?

Gloucester MA Fuller School; Vietnam Wall Memorial;

The Healing Wall

The moving Healing Wall; Fuller School Area Gloucester MA;

Joe Gallo Touching the names etched on The Healing Wall

Flags waved and sirens sounded, the truck carrying the monument, escorted by Massachusetts State Police followed by 350 motorcyclists roaring by with our 58,300 Vietnam War Veterans coming back to visit all of us.

All of the solders arrived; their names etched on garbo black aluminum wall panels. Our Governor, Charlie Baker, and hundreds of others greeting them," That is the lesson Vietnam taught us. Even if you don't support the war, you should support the soldier."

I was no soldier like these men and women or like my father was during the Second World War.

I had to visit these names of once alive youthful Americans with their hopes and dreams as all of us had at their age. Americans who went in place of me. I had to greet and thank them for their ultimate sacrifice for their country. I came very close of going to Vietnam then. The lottery was my master as it was for every young man at that time.

Touching the wall of names connected me with them. I, like everyone else who views this wall was unable to discern these soldiers rank nor ethnicity. I do know these soldiers were all my American brothers and sisters. Monuments do that with people. Monuments help to celebrate, criticize, educate, commemorate, inspire, remember, respect and even heal the men and the women who look upon these monuments with etched names. Radiating from such slabs of stone, aluminum, marble or bronze are feelings or memories of these veterans and the times they lived and died.

Was I worthy enough to even touch these young soldiers names, frozen in time, their ultimate sacrifice allowing me to stand on this side of the Wall of life? This thin barrier of sheer aluminum here in Gloucester or stone in Washington DC, separates us.

I came to visit and thank all 58,300 soldiers allowing me to live my life with freedoms that are all so dear to each one of us. Thank you American Veterans for allowing me to live my life, my dreams.

Thank all you soldiers, you are still touching us all today.

Joseph R Gallo

14 Old Nugent Farm Road, Gloucester, MA

author of "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"

No comments:

Post a Comment

About The Author

Joseph R. Gallo Jr. is not a historian nor a sculptor. He is a student and great appreciator of both academic fields. Trained as an educator and being an entrepreneur, he felt a need to reach out to the thousands of visitors who come to our historical city teaching them through this guidebook the purpose and reason why such beautiful works of art embellish our fair City of Boston. Compiling updated photos and historical text for the resurrection of a much needed simple-to-use guidebook Boston Bronze and Stone Speaks To Us was time consuming, but fulfilling. The purpose and meaning of these monuments is made more lucid with the structuring of this new book.

About the Book

Boston Bronze & Stone Speak To Us is a unique and beautiful book that combines art, history, and walking guides for the public sculpture found in eighteen Boston locales. Written by Joseph R. Gallo, Jr., who states that he is not an historian but a lover of the City of Boston, the book combines his original photographs and observations with well-referenced sources and maps for a complete experience of enjoying Boston sculpture. With hundreds of full-color photographs in all, each chapter offers a map of that area with stars and page numbers marking each work discussed. The chapters include the Boston Common, the State House inside and out, Beacon Hill and Louisburg Square, the Boston Public Gardens, the Esplanade and Hatch Shell, the Fenway, Chinatown and the Theater District, Copley Square, Park Square, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, School Street and the Old City hall, King's Chapel, Downtown and the Financial District, Government Center, Quincy Marketplace and Faneuil Hall, the North End, and the Waterfront. The book also includes and Index of Monuments and an Index of the Sculptors. Boston is home to some of the most extraordinary public art in North America. Sculptors of public art include Daniel Chester French, Katherine Lane Weems, August Saint-Gaudens and George Aarons. This lovingly produced book introduces readers to the artists, the subjects of their work, and the accessibility of exceptional art all within the city of Boston.