Many people pass it everyday without giving it a second thought I’m sure.  It’s just a flagpole.  I noticed it myself about twenty years ago, but it wasn’t until last year that I parked my car and walked over to the flagpole which is perched on a concrete base-and really looked at it.  It’s located on Detroit’s West side at Outer Drive and Lahser Street in the center median.  I immediately noticed that the base is in sad shape.  The concrete is broken in several spots-even chunks of concrete are missing.  It didn’t look like anyone had done maintenance on the thing for ages.  There is a dedication inscribed on it’s side.  Apparently citizens provided for the monument to honor those in the military in 1943- that’s 66 years ago!  No wonder it’s falling apart.  One of the sides of the square base has additional words to note-namely, a partial quote from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: “-That this nation, under God,  Shall have a new birth of freedom-And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  After reading that inscription I was newly reminded that monuments will eventually crumble and be destroyed, but concepts like ‘freedom’ and ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’ are immortal.  It’s the words-not the concrete and the metal, of a monument that matter.

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