November 2008

IN THIS MONTHS ISSUE

Riding to remember

By Linda Sappington

Not one of them knew the fallen soldier they were accompanying from the mortuary to funeral services at a nearby church. But on a blistering, hot day in early August, approximately 30 members of the Patriot Guard Riders gave up much of their Saturday to honor this 93-year-old former U. S. Army sergeant — one of the more than 1,000 World War II veterans who die every day in America. Even before the hearse came into view, family and friends of this husband, father, grandfather and greatgrandfather who served honorably in the Pacific Theater from 1940 to 1945, heard the roar of motorcycles, followed by a flurry of American flags.

Motorists slowed and pulled to the side of the street as the procession went by and pedestrians stopped along the sidewalk to offer a patriotic salute to a man they would never know as he made his last journey of mortality. In the church parking lot, these veterans of Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, Iraq and other wars, skirmishes, conflicts or police actions stood quietly saluting as the flag-draped casket passed by. One-by-one, men and women, old and young with biker names like Hawkeye, Bronco, Pappy, Wild Bill, McDaddy and Big K’huna paid their respects to the grieving widow and other family members, then waited more than two hours in the hot sun until the services were over in order to accompany the soldier to his final resting place.

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Public Faces,
Private Monsters

By Cami Cox

“You’re in jail, and he’s your warden.” Beth (name has been changed) woke up each morning dreading the anger, threats, manipulation and degrading putdowns that were sure to come from her husband that day.

“I would wake up in the morning, and I would look down the hall, and wonder, ‘What kind of day am I going to have today?’” she says. “I would walk in the kitchen, and anything – one word – would set this person off.”

Beth had lived with her husband of 28 years for one year prior to their marriage, but that year wasn’t enough to show her what kind of person she was really committing her life to.

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