Latest news with #MemorialDayFlagGarden
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Photos of May spring rituals: commencements, Celtics playoffs, Boston Calling
People were reflected in an advertisement on a bus stop in Boston on May 15. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum grimaced in pain on the floor during game four of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinal against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on May 12. Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the final minutes of Boston's loss. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff A pedestrian walked on Boylston Street at an intersection by Massachusetts Avenue in Boston on May 15. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Lilah Bilotta, 7, threw out her arms to run through the sea of American flags as she took a break from helping to create the Memorial Day Flag Garden on Boston Common on May 21. Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund and Home Base planted more than 37,000 flags for Memorial Day in honor of Massachusetts veterans who gave their lives. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff .image { margin-top: 100px; } .image figcaption { display: block; max-width: 750px; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; font-size: 18px; caption-side: bottom; line-height: 1.5; } Bernardino Chavarría and his daughter Nahomy, 18, passed beneath a giant American flag painted by her classmates that read, 'The American Dream,' at Champlain Valley Union High School. Teachers and administrators scrambled to put together a graduation for Nahomy and her sister, who had chosen with their family to self-deport after the Trump administration sought to terminate the parole program that they had come to the United States under. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Nahomy Chavarría (left) embraced her sister Andrea during a reception held for them after a special commencement exercise of the Champlain Valley Union High School in Williston, Vt. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Mohsen Mahdawi kneeled to examine a plant while on a hike on his land in Fairlee, Vt., on May 7. Mahdawi, a Palestinian national and Columbia student, was arrested by ICE agents last month when he showed up for a citizenship meeting. He faces deportation. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Juan Francisco Mendez hugged his wife, Marilu Domingo Ortiz, and their 9-year-old son in their home in New Bedford on May 16. A native of Guatemala, Méndez was detained by immigration officials for 30 days before his release. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Members of the singing group O.G. (Original Gentlemen), from left, Robert Rose, Albert Brown, and Jabir Pope, performed an a cappella song during a rally for the wrongfully convicted outside the Massachusetts State House in Boston on May 21. The demonstration commemorated the five-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder while advocating for criminal justice reform. Erin Clark/Globe Staff A woman wore a poncho to protect herself from wind-blown rain on Atlantic Avenue during a rare spring nor'easter in Boston on May 22. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Members of the class of 2025 attended Harvard University's 374th commencement in Cambridge on May 29. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Jess Frey, a yoga educator, leapt from one of her favorite sitting spots by a stream at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge. 'Sometimes in life we all are invited to change - leap - jump - step - transform into new ways of being (personal and collective as a world)," she wrote in an email. Martha and Howard Kaloogian (center), founders of Grace New England church in Weare, N.H., worshipped with other congregants at a prayer service in the barn on their property on May 3. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Reenactor Doug Ozelius played the part of a fatally shot Royal Navy sailor during a staged skirmish on the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Chelsea Creek celebration in East Boston on May 24. The Revolution's first naval battle involved colonial militia facing off with British troops and the HMS Diana. It ended with a victory for the colonists and the destruction of the British schooner. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff A jogger ran on the North Point Pedestrian Bridge in Cambridge on May 14. The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge loomed in the background. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Fans cheered after Boston Celtics center Al Horford made a 3-point basket during the second quarter in game five of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinal against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff Hubbardston Militia reenactor Bella Kaldera secured a tricorner Revolutionary War hat as a modern-day Coast Guard helicopter landed at Beverly High School during a Warrior Weekend event on May 18.
Newsweek
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
For Many Touched by War, a Harsh Homecoming
For schoolchildren, Homer's Odyssey is a vivid tale of storms, shipwrecks and sea monsters, but for those who have actually seen war it remains the classic tale of a homecoming gone wrong. For 10 long years Odysseus and his crew struggled to get back to the Greek island of Ithaca. It was the "longed for day of return" that kept them rowing in the face of Sirens and Cyclopes. Yet Odysseus's homecoming is no joyful event. On the island where he had once been king, no one recognizes him. People and places have changed. Friends and family have drifted away. Homer's hero is not alone in his experience. Whether they have served in the military, intelligence community or diplomatic service, many of our own veterans of foreign wars have faced similar disappointment. Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to replace damaged flags as he stands in a field of some 37,000 of them as part of a Memorial Day Flag Garden by the... Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to replace damaged flags as he stands in a field of some 37,000 of them as part of a Memorial Day Flag Garden by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Boston Common on May 25, 2024. More JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images In a reunion fraught with tension and doubt, even his own wife fails to recognize the wily Odysseus. Penelope addresses him as "stranger" and asks, "Who are your parents?" Only when he describes how he had built their marriage bed does she realize that her husband has returned. This strained process of rebuilding trust and intimacy with one's spouse after years of separation is often as painstaking for today's veterans as it was 3,000 years ago. Odysseus's son Telemachus has grown up without a father. Seeking to escape the pain of his father's absence as well as his mother's anxiety over her husband's uncertain fate, the young man turns to drugs at Helen's hands. How many of our modern veterans or their children have done the same? While Telemachus did not become addicted, many seeking solace from the pain and anger of separation have not been so fortunate. Above all, Odysseus caries the burden of memory. He recalls all too well the blood and chaos of war, the deaths of both comrades and enemies. Watching the men who trusted him to lead them home devoured by monsters or crushed by clashing rocks was not a fairytale, but a nightmare. When a court poet recounts the glories of battle, the old warrior breaks down in tears of remembrance. In Odysseus we see a reflection of every veteran who returns home with post-traumatic stress disorder. Returning to civilian life is inevitably difficult after years of constant fear, sanctioned violence, and anger at the callousness of fate. Some never adjust. As Odysseus tells Penelope, for some war becomes home. His own effort to expunge years of pent-up rage results in the massacre of the suitors who have been pursuing his wife. Modern veterans have no such outlet and are left only with their doubts, anger, and restless nights. Homer's Odyssey portrays the human cost of war. It reminds us of our obligation to care for and honor those who placed their lives in harm's way on our behalf. Each veteran is our own Odysseus. On this Memorial Day, it is fitting to remember those who did not return but save a thought for those who survived and yet never found the longed-for homecoming. David H. Rundell is a former chief of mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the author of Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former political advisor to the U.S. Central Command and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Both served in war zones and are fellows of the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship. The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
