It’s the day after the dedication of the Clay County Veteran’s Memorial. Good crowd, nearly 1000. They were knocked out by Sandy Scott’s bronze eagle. Well they should be; she did a great job. Yes a military band played, someone sang the Star Spangled Banner, and there was 21-gun salute.

My observation? While I’m not big on over-zealous patriotism–which can sometimes lead to nationalism, which often leads to war–I am big on vets. They make the sacrifices, the rest of us enjoy the freedoms–at least in wars where freedom is actually threatened. This is not terribly common right now, since corporate greed plays so much into the smaller wars. But then it always has.

But yeah, I’m fond of vets. I will always oversee monuments to honor them. No, I’ll probably never utilize highly contemporary or abstracted work in this process. Why? Vets don’t understand that stuff, or even care for it. I prefer to give them sculpture they respond to, and enjoy. To me it’s the only way. I’ll save the contemporary work for other installations.