To: The SMU community
I am writing this in response to the email sent to us in November by Meg Richtman, Director of Alumni Relations, in which she announced the administration's decision to begin building a veterans memorial here on campus. In that email she encouraged a sharing of viewpoints and discussion on the project. I have been involved in just such a discussion since first learning about the project in the fall of 2005. At that time, I and two other faculty members composed a letter expressing our concerns about such a memorial. We addressed three main issues in our letter: whether the campus should be home to a second memorial honoring students who have died, whether this memorial should honor only those who have died in military service, and whether there could be a better way to honor SMU veterans that would be more in keeping with our Lasallian mission. This letter was then signed by 30 some other concerned faculty and staff and sent to the Alumni board in March of 2006. In response to that letter, three of us were invited to attend the meeting of the alumni board in June, at which time we presented our concerns and expressed our hopes that we might find an alternative to the currently proposed memorial. The members of the alumni board listened to our concerns but refused to consider changing the project.
I continue to have serious reservations about these issues. More recently I have become concerned, as well, about the size and scope of the current project. What began as a "memorial to Saint Mary's alumni veterans" has now become a memorial to "everyone who has ever served--or who are serving--our nation," according to the chairperson for the Veterans' Memorial Project, Captain Timothy Tyre. This memorial, it would seem then, would honor not only those alumni who have honorably served their country but would also include those soldiers who participated in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, those who participated in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and those who taught at the School of the Americas, whose graduates have been cited for the assassination of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 co-workers, the assassination of Archbishop Romero, and the murder of 4 U.S. church women.
Perhaps an even greater concern is Captain Tyre's assertion that military service reflects "the Catholic, Lasallian tradition of service to others" and that the memorial "promises to be a thoughtful and appropriate addition to the Lasallian tradition." I would agree with him that "Those who have chosen service in the military branches as nurses, chaplains" exemplify the vision statement of Saint Mary's as a Catholic and Lasallian university to "transform society, one learner at a time, so that faith, zeal, service and leadership – all directed toward the common good – become society's defining hallmarks". However, the service represented by those who actively engage in warfare seems to me to be less in keeping with Catholic social teaching and Lasallian service. Throughout the years, both Lasallian leaders and Catholic bishops and popes have advocated for the creation of a culture of peace rather than one of war.
My greatest concern, however, is with children, whom Br. Alvaro in his address to the 2006 International Assembly placed "at the very heart of the Lasallian mission." I refer here not only to our own students but also to children all over the world. Every year I teach an LCT course to juniors on Children's issues in our Lasallian Core Traditions program. At the beginning of each course we look at the impact of war on children. I ask my students to name as many movies, books, courses, and monuments to war as they can--an exercise that they find quite easy. Then I ask them to name as many movies, books, courses, and monuments to peace as they can. Their difficulty is palpable. They finally mention something about Gandhi, Mother Theresa or Martin Luther King, Jr. Only once has a student mentioned that we have a monument to peace right here on campus, the peace pole erected after September 11, 2001. This, however, is not surprising given the fact that it is small and hasn't been a focus of university activities since its dedication. Neither the pole nor its dedication can be found in a search of the University web site although a search for "memorial" yields six references to the Veteran's Memorial with an additional link under both "war" and "veteran," despite the fact that this memorial has not even been built yet.
We, currently, have only a relatively small statue of St. John Baptist de la Salle in the Cascio Family Court. Across from that we already have a much larger memorial to students who have died. Behind this, the planned Veterans Memorial will dominate the landscape, making it by far the most visible structure on campus, aside from buildings.
One aspect of the proposed memorial is that "Each gift of more than $250 [...] will be recognized with an engraved paving brick. [...] Every brick represents an individual tied to the Saint Mary's University family." Perhaps a more appropriate memorial to honor our alumni veterans would be one of Jesus surrounded by children. Some of the bricks could then be dedicated to the 2 million children who have died in wars over just the last decade and who, according to our Lasallian vocation and the teachings of Jesus, are those to whom we should dedicate our lives and our service. We cannot forget that these children along with the additional 1 million orphaned, 6 million injured or disabled, 12 million left homeless and 10 million psychologically traumatized by war also are intimately tied to our Saint Mary's family.
In the book, Touching the Hearts of Students: Characteristics of Lasallian Schools, there is a Catholic Lasallian Assessment Process included in the Appendix for schools to "identify strengths and target areas for growth. The focus of the assessment process is to build on the strengths within the school, affirming and encouraging efforts to live out the Catholic and Lasallian character in all aspects of the school's life." The first of the six qualities assessed is: Lasallian schools are committed to living their Catholic and Lasallian heritage. Listed under "Things to Look For" are the following:
• visible signs, symbols, and practices of Catholic identity on campus
• visible signs, artwork, symbols, and practices of the Lasallian heritage on campus
I hope that, before proceeding with the construction of the proposed memorial, we will consider seriously the statement that this memorial will make to all current, past, and prospective students and their families when they come onto our campus. I also hope that we will reflect deeply on what it means to be called to serve as Lasallians.
