VETS: Message for thief

To the person or persons who stole the coins from the Silver Valley Veterans Memorial in Kellogg: You stole from the vets, because the coins were left by someone who had stopped there, and they wanted to let people know they were there, and that they are thankful for those who serve in the military, so they left a coin. THEY DID NOT LEAVE THEM FOR YOU.

WHAT THE COINS MEAN

Penny: Knew the vet

Nickel: Trained with the vet

Dime: Was in the same unit as the vet

Quarter: Was there when the vet died

All the money donated, or left at the memorial, goes to keep up the memorial, and to keep adding names to it. That money now cannot be used for its purpose, since you figured you needed it more than the memorial does.

The names on the walls of the memorial are vets who served in the different branches of the military, and many of them DIED IN COMBAT, so that YOU still have the FREEDOMS George Washington and his fellow patriots BOUGHT for YOU. The names on those walls are some of the ones who KEPT THOSE PAYMENTS UP, so that YOU still live in a FREE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Vets consider ANY headstone or monument to a vet as SACRED GROUND, and they are not meant as a play area, or a place to leave your trash, or to collect money that was left by others.

Volunteers clean up the trash that others leave, and we all are amazed that people can come to such a SACRED place and leave their trash. As the old saying about visiting the outdoors goes, “TAKE NOTHING BUT PICTURES. LEAVE NOTHING BUT FOOTPRINTS.”

JOHN DICKEY

Smelterville