Editorial: Veterans Day to be celebrated with expanded ceremony

Cornell Anton told the Belleville City Council on Monday that it was just going to be a very simple ceremony on Nov. 11, something akin to the brief Bugles Across America ceremony each month.
Anton was representing the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Polish League of American Veterans who were putting on the Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11 at the Veterans Memorial. But then he explained, the ROTC said they would be marching from the high school down Edison Avenue, some 100 strong. They have some new members that were recently pinned. The ROTC volunteered to put up the chairs in the middle of High Street at the monument. The chairs will be borrowed from the church.
And then, they decided to place wreaths after all and there will be rifles fired and Pastor Robert White will say a prayer. Anton said the long speech has been eliminated. He expects about 150 people.
The city council agreed to close High Street from the memorial to Church Street and to ask the police department to close traffic on High Street briefly as the ROTC marches in from Edison.
This is on a Thursday, so many people will be at work and won’t be able to come, but 11 a.m. at 11/11 is the time to honor our military people, alive and dead.
The council also was alerted the veteran banners are going up Nov. 6 in the city.