Western Nevada College English Prof. Marilee Swirczek created the "Always Lost: A Meditation on War" exhibit. The exhibit, with its powerful, personalized remembrance of devotion and love for the nearly 5,000 men and women who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, is on its way to the University of Wisconsin. It will spend a year touring the university's campuses. Other universities and museums are now asking for it.
Swirczek put together a planning group to help with logistics and fundraising. The work is hard and occasionally there is (a little) discord.
WNC English Instructor, Kevin Burns, planning committee member and Marine Corps major, wrote the following:
"It can be scary thinking about where this (exhibit) could end. But perhaps this is the reason we have been chosen to do this. Our efforts have been judged worthy. And we are worried about what? ...
"Sun Tzu once said, 'Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!'
"I submit that since they have given their lives, they are our beloved sons and daughters. They are somebody's John or Stephanie or Trevor or Simon or Laurie or Zach or Brooke. What have we had to give, some time?
"Did Noah (Pierce, a two tour Iraqi War casualty featured in the exhibit, who committed suicide) ask for anything? He took his pain to the grave. What pain is this endeavor really causing us? Honoring those who have forsaken a lifetime of dreams and hopes for their nation's call is itself a noble calling. It goes beyond a calling; it is a responsibility.
"It does not matter if only a few of us recognize this responsibility of making sure they are not relegated to page seven. We are not doing this because we have to, we are doing it because it should be done. Why? Perhaps David Thomas, interestingly enough born in the same year as the U.S., 1776, said it better than anyone I have ever heard, 'Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls.'"
Major Burns ends his plea to us, "You and I (all of us) have been blessed to have lived through good times and survive the bad. We have wonderful children, beautiful grandchildren. We have a life that the rest of the world envies for our creature comforts while they try to just see the next day. Is it so much to ask to spend a little of that wonderful gift of our life remembering those who cannot live anymore? Is that not really the definition of gratitude?"
Major Burns' message is the power of love for our fallen warriors. They need our help. Donate to the effort at "Always Lost" WNC Foundation, 2201 W. College Parkway, Carson City, NV 89703.
• Eugene Paslov is a board member of the Davidson Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno and the former Nevada state superintendent of schools.