Mayor Calls For Greater Commitment To Veterans And Democracy At Sag Harbor Memorial Day Observance

The Sag Harbor community came together Monday morning, as it does every year, rain or shine, for the annual Memorial Day parade and observance.

Mayor Jim Larocca, a U.S. Navy veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, gave the keynote address at Marine Park. He said Americans should honor the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for this country not only by erecting monuments and memorials but by demanding that the country provide for the needs of all veterans, and by participating fully in an American democracy that he said was “in distress.”

“I find myself asking if a name etched on a boulder or a plaque or a local landmark is enough,” he said. “And, of course, it is clear that it cannot possibly be enough.”

“For those who have served and have needs, we, the wider community, need to do more for their benefit and in the names of those who have fallen,” he continued.

The most obvious way to do that, he added, is by ensuring that the Veterans Administration does its job. While the VA has improved, it “is still lagging far behind the needs of our veterans,” he said, before calling on Americans to demand when they go to the ballot box this year that candidates commit to improving the VA.

He concluded by calling on Americans to take responsibility for the state of the nation’s democracy. “We have to get this right,” he said. “Taking care of this democracy means participating in it.”

At the beginning of his remarks, Larocca acknowledged that when he came home from Vietnam, he received a cold reception, as did many others upon their return from that war, and he added that even extended to his local American Legion post in Brooklyn. He thanked Bruce Winchell for encouraging him to join the Sag Harbor Legion.

“With his sponsorship and the opportunity to close an unhappy, unnecessary wound to so many Vietnam veterans that I have felt, I was welcomed as a member of this post this winter,” he said.

Ben Fischer, the commander of the Sag Harbor Veterans of Foreign Wars post and a U.S. Army veteran who saw combat in Iraq, also spoke briefly, and said he, too, had felt uncomfortable participating in Memorial Day services in the past, saying his experiences had been difficult, before citing the names of seven friends he had lost in that war.

Becker said he still missed those friends. “I thought time would heal it, but it’s actually harder,” he said. “It’s harder to understand what we’ve missed out on since they have been gone.”

Memorial Day speeches carry a common theme, he said — that those who died for this country hoped they would be the last to have to do so. Yet, he said, the cycle continues.

“I hope that one day we can stop saying that,” he said. “I hope my sons do not have to say, ‘I want to serve so my children don’t have to.’

“We owe them and the men and women who have given their lives to be better,” he continued. “Let’s not take every day for granted. Let’s make every attempt to be positive, smile and work together, starting in a small community, to a state, and to a nation.”

This year, for what seemed like the first time in forever, the weather cooperated by providing crystal-clear blue skies and summer-like warmth, as the small parade stepped off from the World War I Monument at Otter Pond and made its way up Main Street.

The contingent was led by veterans and included the Sag Harbor Fire Department, the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, the Pierson High School Band, and Girl Scouts and Scouts BSA.

It made its first stop at the Civil War Monument at the intersection of Main and Madison streets.

There, before the traditional three-volley salute, Daniel Mulvihill read “Logan’s Orders,” which were issued by retired Union General John Logan in 1868 and called for the decorating of the graves of those killed in the Civil War.

Similar stops were also made at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Main Street, to honor members of the fire department who died in service; at the foot of the Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge; and at Marine Park, where wreaths were placed in the harbor to honor those lost at sea.

Marchers were met with applause by the larger-than-usual crowd. A reception followed at the American Legion on Bay Street.