Walking pensively across Monument Square, I hesitate at the obelisk in its center to read each of the 48 names of Concordians who gave their full measure to banish the evils and horrors of slavery in America. On a boulder, closest the Inn, are names from the Spanish-American War, while at the opposite end, on a much larger boulder, are the 32 names from the Great War of 1918, ending with Emerson’s touching rhyme, “When duty mutters low thou must, The youth replies, I can.” Across the street stand three more plaques with their haunting names from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, and Iraq.
The square and its borders are an oasis of greenery in Concord’s midst, solemn and hallowed ground, dedicated to the repose and memory of Concord’s fallen. Sanctum, sanctorum. May it forever so remain.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, the Concord Permanent Memorial 250 Committee plans a permanent hardscape memorial on the last remaining plot of greenery on the square. The focus of the new memorial will feature issues of social justice, individual freedom, indigenous peoples, women, and people of color.
These sweeping, transcending issues of our time have yet to be memorialized in Concord. Owing to the global reach of its message (worthy of a site on the Boston Common or even the National Mall), it deserves a place of its own — not squeezed between the two present memorials on Monument Square with its still green and leafy aura of solitude.
For one is to the sacred memory of our war dead and our past. The other defines the issues of today and projects hope for the future. Let them each stand proudly, but apart. And please, not on this last green space!
Hands off Monument Square.
Pierce B. Browne
Newbury Court
