Writer Gordon Berg beside a sign in New Mexico commemorating the Trinity Site, miles away, where the first atomic bomb was tested. Photo: Lauren Berg
By Gordon Berg
Memorial Day. The official kick-off of summer. All over Michigan folks are planning to get away Up North to make new memories with family and friends.
It’s fitting that the anticipation of new memories begins with a remembrance. Memorial Day. It is a time to remember all those in our military since the dawn of our nation. Parades. Honor Guards in local cemeteries. Flowers on a gravesite. These men and women gave their all. They define the cost of patriotism.
And, of course, we need to remember those currently in our military on July 4 and our vets on Veterans Day, November 11. While we’re at it, let’s not forget our heroes of public safety on National First Responders Day, October 28.
To them all, we offer a quiet moment of deep gratitude. We’re all better for their service.
But who else should we pause to remember this year? Are there other groups of people within our country whose sacrifices paved the way for our nation to grow and prosper through no choice of their own? And … are there days this summer and throughout the year when we should pause to honor them?
The answer is yes.
Juneteenth
An official national holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the day, on June 19 in 1865, when Black people in Galveston first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation which had been signed more than two years earlier.
The contributions of enslaved people to this nation cannot be overstated. Our nation’s early prosperity when cotton was king was literally built on the backs of the enslaved. They also did the backbreaking work of quarrying rocks, making bricks and constructing many of our treasured national monuments including the White House, the Capital Building, the Smithsonian Institution and at least three early presidents’ homes. They literally built the artificial island upon which Fort Sumter was constructed. And, when the fort was damaged during the Civil War, it was the enslaved who were ordered to repair it while it was still under attack! Americans of African descent have and continue to make this country great. This June 19, we should pause, remember and offer up our gratitude.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
If I say, “In 1492, Columbus sailed … ” everyone reading it would finish the line with the words, “the ocean blue.” So, while celebrating Columbus Day on the second Monday of October, it is fitting that we also honor the First Peoples of our nation on the same day. Indigenous people have sacrificed for our nation’s growth in countless ways. Enslavement. Forced relocations from fertile ground to barren landscapes. Campaigns to eliminate their culture and their language. Illness. Torture. As the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indians notes, “Native people continue to fight to maintain the integrity and viability of Indigenous societies. American Indian history is one of cultural persistence, creative adaptation, renewal, and resilience … Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes the resilience and diversity of Indigenous Peoples in the United States.”
Trinity Downwinders
During our travels to New Mexico in January, my wife and I drove past a historical roadside marker commemorating the Trinity Test Site, miles away from the actual blast site itself in the middle of the White Sands Missile Range. July 16, 1945, is a grim reminder of how World War II ended and when the Atomic Age began.
The blast was top secret. Until it lit up the sky. Even then, people were told a munitions supply accident caused the blast. Children played in the fallout. They thought it was snowing. Nearly a half-million people lived within a 150-mile radius of the blast. Ranches, cattle, chickens, orchards and water sources all became contaminated as the fallout fell for days. In the years that followed, hundreds of New Mexicans developed cancers or diseases attributed to the blast. They had no choice to opt in or out of their sacrifice to our nation. It just happened. Multiple generations since the blast continue to develop cancer from that moment.
Downwinders from subsequent Nevada testing have been offered some compensation for their debilitating conditions. For them, January 27 is designated as the National Day of Remembrance for Downwinders. Yet for the first people in the world to be exposed to radioactive fallout — our own citizens — there still is no recognition or compensation for their sacrifices to our nation. Today there is a bill working its way through Congress to offset medical costs for those individuals affected. But for now, please remember these folks on July 16.
Eminent Domainers
Another group that encompasses millions whose sacrifices are long forgotten are eminent domainers, those whose homes and communities were taken over by government agencies to create the infrastructure needs of our nation. Pipelines, railroads, airports, public buildings, defense readiness … all required telling someone they had to move out of their home or business.
This sacrifice was driven home to me recently when we toured the Stennis Space Center and Museum in the “Piney Woods” of southwest Mississippi. The complex sits on 140,000-plus acres. Its construction in the early 1960s displaced thousands of families when the race to the Moon began. The only thing to speak to their loss is a three-ring binder against a remote wall of the museum. There you’ll find the names of all those families who, through no choice of their own, became unsung heroes, so America could win the Space Race.
If you think our little neck of the Michigan woods is removed from eminent domain, just ask those who were displaced to create the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Tourists worldwide venture there each year to marvel at its beauty. But for that to happen, many gave up family cabins, mom-and-pop businesses and more. October 21, 1970, is when the park was created. I would encourage you visit the Lakeshore on this day. Atop a dune, pause to give these local unsung sacrificers — our neighbors — a prayer of gratitude.
Many others
The list of sung and unsung patriots is long. Too long. Any group omitted in this article is not without our heartfelt respect for their countless sacrifices. It takes all of us to grow our nation into the vision of its best self. Honoring all these patriots throughout the year is a good place to start.
Gordon berg is a descendant of Manistee’s Bergs, Swansons and Martinsons. His debut book “Harry and the Hurricane” is about his father’s life as a young boy and how he survived the Miami hurricane of 1926. www.harryandthehurricane.com
