A query you will have nearly definitely by no means requested your self is: What do Colonel Freeman McGilvery, James Weldon Johnson and R.B. Corridor have in widespread? They’re among the many 10 people whom the Maine Legislature has, by statute, honored with a commemorative day.
A couple of minutes on the web reveals that every led an admirable life. At subject just isn’t why they’re honored however why others, with equal or arguably higher accomplishments, will not be.
Colonel McGilvery, who was born in Prospect and whose commemorative day is the primary Saturday of September, distinguished himself in two main Civil Conflict battles and died in 1864 from problems arising from what started as a “barely wounded” finger. Whereas his army file warrants nice reward, is he actually extra deserving than Joshua Chamberlain?
Certainly, the checklist of “Well-known Folks from Maine” on the State’s web site contains Chamberlain and never McGilvery. Maybe the distinction is that the latter died throughout the warfare. However that may also be mentioned of an estimated 9,400 different Mainers.
As for James Weldon Johnson, commemorated on June 17, aside from being an completed composer and author, he was an early and efficient fighter for civil rights, having served as the primary govt secretary of the NAACP. Whereas his life merited recognition, the identical is true of Thurgood Marshall, Medgar Evers and John Lewis. (I don’t embody Martin Luther King as a result of Maine seems to not commemorate these honored by a federal vacation.)
Though he by no means lived in Maine, Johnson might have been chosen due to a considerably tenuous tie to the state, in that he died in 1938 whereas vacationing in Wiscasset when a automobile his spouse was driving was hit by a prepare. I might not assume, nonetheless, that the Legislature would search to publicize that connection.
In case you missed it, R.B. Corridor’s commemorative day is the final Saturday in June. For individuals who share my restricted familiarity with music, Mr. Corridor, who lived in Bowdoinham, was a broadly praised composer of marches and an excellent cornetist. I assist together with these with achievements within the arts, however what occurred to Edna St. Vincent Millay and Edwin Arlington Robinson? Whereas they didn’t die in Maine, neither did Andrew Wyeth, who’s amongst these acknowledged by the Legislature.
For these bursting with curiosity, the opposite honorees are Chester Greenwood, Samantha Smith, Margaret Chase Smith, Edmund S. Muskie, Main Basic Henry Knox and Governor William King.
However the inclusion of the 2 Smiths, females appear underrepresented. It’s tough to justify the absence of Frances Perkins, the primary feminine Cupboard member and an ardent champion of employees’ rights. Though she had the misfortune to hail from Massachusetts, she spent appreciable time on the Perkins homestead in Newcastle.
Surprisingly, none of these included in what could be deemed Maine’s Corridor of Fame attended Bowdoin Faculty, which for years attracted the state’s elite.
As my subsequent birthday shall be my eightieth, I’m operating out of time to earn a commemorative day. However since loss of life seems to be a prerequisite, obscurity has its advantages.
And the Legislature has supplied some comfort for these of us unlikely to obtain our personal day by establishing group commemorative days, considered one of which honors, on the second Saturday of September, “the service and contributions of senior residents.” To qualify, one want solely develop outdated.
Whereas firefighters are expressly acknowledged on Firefighter’s Recognition Day and First Responders Day, in addition to throughout the Maine Week of Heroes, academics, substance abuse counselors, environmental activists and people serving the poor get no point out in any respect. I would rank honoring them above designating a Maine Aviation and Aerospace Schooling Week, however I suppose that may be a matter of opinion.
Though our elected representatives might not have acted with nice consistency within the granting of commemorative days, they’ve a minimum of had the humility to not create one for legislators.
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