Don’t Miss The Field Of Flags

To the Editor:

The Field of Flags is coming to Newtown this weekend, and I want to encourage everyone who finds themselves in the vicinity of the flagpole to take a few minutes and turn up West Street to Newtown Congregational Church and view and feel the impact of some 4,500 small flags — each representing a service man or woman lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — carefully placed in the hillside.

And if you have a few more minutes, view the boards that provide the name, age, hometown, service branch, and rank of every service member killed since US combat in those countries began.

I happened across this moving display when it was in Ridgefield last year and found it to be powerful and thought-provoking... and it is especially appropriate to contemplate this weekend.

Janis Gibson

33 Old Lantern Road, Danbury May 20, 2009