Victory Memorial Drive turns 90 degrees here, at the
northwestern corner of Minneapolis.

This tree stands for Private Everett R. McClay, 357th Infantry.

This statue of Abraham Lincoln is across from the flagpole.

Both photos are actually of the same view... they were taken at nearby spots... but at different times and different seasons. 

The third photo was taken at night in mid-December 2003.  All the daytime pictures of Victory Memorial Drive were taken on a sunny morning, Memorial Day 2004.

A group of neighbors put up their Christmas display together.  As you can see, it was about one block long.  Each of the letters was about eight feet high -- made with regular light bulbs -- the kind you use for lamps. 

In 1923 Rev. Marion Daniel Shutter's two-volume History of Minneapolis was published, including a chapter titled "Minneapolis in the World War".  Rev. Shutter wrote then, from not yet fully complete information, that: "Hennepin County sent at least 26,000 men into active service."  Of the more than 11,000 from Minneapolis, "4,844 were in action and 1,090 were wounded." 

In May of 1922 a committee prepared "the Gold Star roster" for Minnesota's Hennepin county.  The committee found "568 men and women of the county had surrendered their lives to the cause of duty and humanity." 

Americans hoped that World War I would make the world safe for democracy.  That, and nothing less, was the goal established by an idealistic president Woodrow Wilson in an April 1917 address to congress, when he advised that congress should declare that a state of war existed between the United States and Germany.

America's commitment was total. All men from the voting age of 21 to 31 were eligible to be drafted; this was later extended to age 45.  The top income tax rate was raised to 77%.  A Committee on Public Information was formed, to convince the public that the war was just.  An espionage act was passed in 1917, followed by a sedition act in 1918. Almost five million Americans were in uniform by the end of the war, just nineteen months after America's decisive entry.  

Victory Memorial Drive was well under way, but not complete, when Rev. Shutter described it this way:

"One of the most unique and wonderful memorials of the war has been founded in Minneapolis.  A broad, beautiful driveway, eight and a half miles in length, forming the northwestern borders of the municipal system of parks and boulevards, has been planted to hardy and graceful elms of pure and attested genealogy, so that in years to come there is every fair promise that the avenue will be arched from side to side by their graceful boughs and dark green foliage.  The significance of this living avenue of trees is not that in a general way it is symbolic of the active part taken by the people of Minneapolis in bringing victory to the allied armies, but that each growing tree stands for the individual sacrifice of a Gold Star.  'Literally and beautifully shall their memories be kept green, and ever more green, as the years put increasing life into the sentinels of the Victory Memorial Drive.'"

As with national cemeteries, each individual's marker is personal.

Rev. Shutter's chapter on 'Minneapolis in the World War' began with this observation:

"Years must elapse before a complete history of the great European war of 1914-1918 can be written.  The next generation may furnish a historian with a mind sufficiently free from bias and prejudice to tell a true and impartial story of the great conflict in which so many nations were involved."

French Marshall Ferdinand Foch, the supreme commander of Allied forces on the Western front, had this to say when he visited Minneapolis and reached the entrance to the drive:

"I am very happy to visit this memorial, which in its conception and its execution I consider magnificent.  The recording of the record of the individual in this fashion is a splendid method of maintaining the intercourse between the living and the dead fallen for their country.  There is no finer way of maintaining the traditions of the country and no finer way of fostering patriotism."

Today, we hold the same traditional hope for liberty, justice and democracy that America has shared through our entire history.  Of these three hopes, democracy is the only one not in our constitution directly -- as a word.  But democracy was planted there, and in all the local soils of early America.  Democracy has grown in America, through the course of our history.  Its roots are deep and powerful.  Over decades and centuries it has broken down walls. We have seen democracy grow with many trunks, in many local soils.  Statues can be erected and toppled.  Only democracy can grow.  

The leaves were gone by the middle of December last year, as they always are.  That winter night, both a message of hope for peace, and the sentinels of Victory Memorial Drive, were visible together.  As we remember the sacrifice of those who have died for our country, we are inspired by them to reflect, and to be humbly grateful.  As Americans, each of us must find in our own life, our unique duty and opportunity to pass on to others the many blessings made possible by their sacrifice.