JACKSON HOLDS LOYALTY DAY CELEBRATION

Opening with the Pledge of Allegiance, Loyalty Day was celebrated at Brookside Veteran's Memorial.

Those present came to pay tribute to an idea: democracy.

Brookside Veteran's Memorial's beauty was stunning. the Rev. John Rice of New McKendree United Methodist Church delivered a speech on the importance of memorials.

A veteran visited the wall.

The Jackson Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies' Auxiliary recently celebrated Loyalty Day with a celebration at the Brookside Veteran's Memorial.

Loyalty Day, May 1, was established in 1958 to honor democracy and reaffirm the nation's loyalty.

At the recent celebration, VFW Comdr. E.P. Kurre, Ginny Jones, Pauline Nitsch, the Rev. John Rice and chaplain Emil Brase presented a program. Grace Wille, Americanism chairman, was in charge of the program.

The VFW started this observance of Loyalty Day in the early 1930s when communist agitators in America held parades on May 1, in which they attacked our country and our way of life. In 1958 President Eisenhower signed the law that established Loyalty Day as a national holiday.

Today, with the decline of communism, Americans still observe Loyalty Day as a way to reaffirm their loyalty to their country and allegiance to its flag.

The Memorial to Veterans of All Wars is on top of a three-acre knoll in beautiful Brookside Park. The handicap-accessible walk leads up to the memorial's open chapel and eleven sentinel columns facing a curved wall of black granite engraved with the names of more than 2,400 veterans. The names, voluntarily submitted, represent the official 10 wars of the United States: The Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.

The Memorial is open year-round.