Memorial Day Wreath Laying Draws Crowd to Monument, Mamdani Too

Unbowed by two prior days of rain and thankfully mistaken forecast of more, upwards of 1,000 people came to Riverside Drive and West 89th Street for the annual Memorial Day Wreath Laying ceremony at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on Monday May 25. Located just inside Riverside Park, the monument stands as one the grandest—and, for many years, one of the most neglected—remembrance sites in all Manhattan.

Despite the solemnity of the occasion, the event itself was cheerful, with people drawing strength from each other and their common sources of pride, America and its veterans. The program began at 10 a.m. as a wind band from the nearby Bloomingdale School of Music performed military and patriotic songs from their position on the monument’s plaza, as they would through the 90 minute ceremony. Among the early highlights was the processional including the Piper New York Caledonian Club and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War; the posting of the colors by the girls and boys of the Graphic Campus Navy Junior ROTC, whose members are comprised of six Hell’s Kitchen area high schools; and an invocation by Father Gerald Murray of St. Joseph’s Church in Yorkville.

The event was emceed by the event’s organizer, Peter Galasinao, a retired US Navy Commander and the President of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Memorial Association. Before the scheduled program of speakers, Galasinao announced that Mayor Zohran Mamdani was coming and would also speak.

In the meantime, there would be words from Council Members Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu (who made a topically appropriate Pericles reference); Assembly Members Micah Lasher and Linda Rosenthal; Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal (who qu0ted Laurence Binyon), NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura and the day’s guest speaker, Thomas M. Duffy, a former Navy Commander and State Department Foreign Service Officer who served many years in the Middle East. Recently installed State Senator Erik Bottcher was not present, though Hoylman-Sigal, whose open seat Bottcher filled, did attend last year’s ceremony.

Gale Brewer Tells It Like It Is

Because one highlight of last year’s event was the joy expressed by Brewer and others that funding for the monument’s restoration had been secured from the Mayor’s Office, many of this year’s attendees wondered why the monument was still surrounded by a chainlink fence, behind which it appeared that no work had been done? Before offering her Memorial Day speech, Brewer addressed this exact question.

“Many of us share concerns about how long it is taking for there to be visible signs of improvement but the complex specifications and drawings to restore the entire site are ongoing and I have a progress report,” she began.

“Because the structure was badly deteriorated, a long and complicated site survey was required to assess the damage and to develop a plan for remediating or replacing parts of the structure. That phase of the work has been completed and a finished design, including an award-winning plan for ADA access has been delivered to the contractor. Work will start late next year. Completion in 2030.”

“It is a complicated project. It encompasses the monument, the stairs, the terraces and the pathways that oust storm water and who the hell knew that storm water management would be part of this, and that has to be signed off on by the Department of Environmental Protection?”

Now ready to address the occasion, Brewer began, “A few words about Memorial Day. The solemn grandeur of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument embodies the living memory of the Civil War by those who fought in it. They were among the one in seven New Yorkers who wore Union blue. And the city was at the center of not only the war effort but the political and social strife that arose when the nation divided into north and south over the issue of slavery 250 years after we fired the Shot Heard ‘Round the world. Our book sheleves are filled with accounts explaining it all, and of speeches we have a plenty, and the headstones of the fallen stretch to the horizon.”

She continued, reminding the crowd it took 100 years to acknowledge “the unifinished business” of the war, alluding to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and concluded with thoughts of Dr. George Chall, President Emiritus of the S&S Monument Association.

“As George Chall learned while a medic in World War II, the dead and dying were of all kinds of persuasions. And they met their fate because they believed in the meaning of America. If today means anything, so must we. Thank you very much.”

Zohran Mandami Enters—& Exits— the Plaza

The arrival of Mayor Mamdani was cause for a certain excitement, not just for his often acknowledged charm but the meaning of his presence, both as Mayor and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America—the latter of whom are not known for patriotic gesture or rhetoric. Hizzoner belied this reputation, however, and took to the podium with an American flag pin conspicuous on the left lapel of his charcoal grey suit jacket.

Indeed, save a closing reference to his affordability agenda framed by the needs of veterans, one would hardly distinguish Hizzoner from the other liberal Democrats who’d spoken before him, except that he spoke at greater length, for nearly six minutes, including special mention of the “Gold Star families that are here with us today.”

Like others speaking before him, Mamdani recalled his forebears, including another Manhattan boy like himself: “One hundred twenty years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt led the dedication for the Soldiers and Sailors that included a parade of Union Army veterans—36 years had passed since the end of the Civil War. No doubt many of them were old or hobbled and aching as they walked Riverside Drive. And [I] cannot help but think what that moment meant to them on Dedication Day.”

“To have made great sacrifices in the fight, not only for our country but the for the abolition of slavery, an outcome that was by no means guaranteed, and to have won it not only for themselves but for their children and grandchildren and all those that would still come. Decades later, civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph would put it this way: ‘Freedom is never granted, It is won. Justice is never given, it is exacted.’”

When Mamdani left the plaza, he was politely swarmed by the Junior ROTC kids seeking selfies with the Mayor, including one excited boy, who having succeeded, exclaimed, “I got my endorsement video!”