Veterans deserve memorial fund

Our Word
Daily Egyptian

On Oct. 21, the Carbondale City Council unanimously approved plans for an 18-foot-wide and 3 1/2-foot-tall Veterans Memorial Wall to stand at the southeast corner of the Town Square. Two weeks later, taking the recommendation of Carbondale City Manager Jeff Doherty, the City Council postponed the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2506's pre-application for financial aid with the project, saying the VFW needed to first seek funding from Carbondale Main Street.

We were very disappointed with this postponement, which came just before Veterans Day, and soon after we published an editorial in strong support of the city funding the wall, and thus, strong opposition to the actions taken at that meeting by Doherty and the City Council.

At the time, we believed they showed a huge amount of disrespect to veterans not only in Carbondale, but also in all across America and in all the counties in which they have served and/or are serving. We felt they had their priorities wrong in helping fund the building of new homes but not the building of a worthy memorial.

It was only in hindsight and after a few calls from Doherty that we realized the city was quite possibly trying to do just as the Daily Egyptian and every in town wants it to do - act responsibly.

As it turns out, the City Council gives Main Street a sum of about $70,000 per year to beatify Main Street. And since the memorial will sit in the Veterans Memorial Plaza, which faces Main Street, it is now clear Main Street was the right place for the funding to come from.

And on Wednesday afternoon, Carbondale Main Street presented the veterans with a check in the amount of $8,206 to assist in the funding of the Veterans Memorial Wall.

While the presentation of this check made for a happy day for the veterans and supporters of the wall, we still believe this amount wasn't enough.

Although the VFW got exactly what they asked for - $8,206 - it still falls painfully short of the total needed to complete the project.

The VFW has said it would raise the rest of the money, a sum of about $6,000, which will pay for the wall's six plaques, from within the group and with support from the community.

While we think the veterans' offer shows the extent of their desire to have this memorial built, we regret the idea that they have to pay for even the smallest part of their own memorial. We think they deserve better.

With that, we hope Carbondale will come together and get this memorial built with as little funding as possible from the veterans, many of whom are living on fixed incomes. They have already given this city and this country so much, and it seems offensive to expect any more from them.

Copyright 2008 - Daily Egyptian