A view from Veterans Memorial

My 2-year-old son, Stephen, discovered binoculars over the Memorial Day weekend in Denali National Park. Wearing his Carhartt brown duck overalls, matching cap, and his “noculars” put a smile on the face of many passersby. Sure, there was a cuteness factor, but there is another reason Stephen and his “noculars” put a smile on my face and heart.

Our family has an annual tradition of visiting the Veteran’s Memorial at Byer’s Lake each Memorial Day. I personally consider this monument to be sacred ground where tender feelings of admiration and appreciation swell within my heart as I consider the sacrifices made by the men and women who have protected our homeland and way of life.

At the portal of the Veteran’s Memorial lies a stone likeness of two parka-clad members of the Alaska Territorial Guard, watching over the landscape with a pair of binoculars. I noticed Stephen, who with his “noculars” angled upward and turned backwards, was zeroing in on the binoculars of stone. I quickly snapped some photos, loaded the family back in the car, and pondered the significance of the moment during the ride home.

Stephen’s view was a wide view. Turn binoculars around, and instead of magnifying an object, the view angle widens, making things appear farther away.

He doesn’t comprehend it yet, but in the wide view of history, Stephen has much to be grateful for.

His forefathers are among those who served at Bunker Hill, risked their lives to abolish slavery, slogged through the trenches of France, and reported for Vietnam draft duty. I imagine these people and the mothers, fathers, siblings and others who supported them standing behind the monument of stone, with smiling faces, looking back at Stephen and I. They did what they did for us. Our pleasant lives in a pleasant land were built on the backs of those who were willing to sacrifice everything for their posterity.

All Americans benefit from and share this heritage.

For those of you who serve, or have served to protect the liberty of our fair land, we look to you with gratitude and hope that the stories of our past will live on in the lives of our children so that our nation will shine ever brighter.

Ray Hafen is a resident of Wasilla.