While waiting for my ride to pick me up from the main entrance of my school, I happened to notice a large plaque mounted on the wall that I'd never seen before, despite passing it for more than two years. It read "In Memorial to the Boys of this School Who Gave their Lives for Freedom's Cause." It then continued, "Howard Watson Andrews, Died in France, February 6, 1919. Edwards Hall Berry, 1st Lieutenant, Died en Route to France, October 29, 1918..." Thinking back to history class, I realized that this was a memorial for boys from my school that had died during WWI.
I stood back and thought about it for a second. Personally, I had never noticed this piece, and I'm fairly observant. I wondered how many others like me had passed through that entrance, never noticing that memorial, never reading those names, never stopping to think about the people that were not much older than us that had died for our freedom.
Over three-thousand students attend my school and pass through those doors every day. Somehow I get the feeling that I'm not the only one that didn't know this memorial existed. It's not like it's a general memorial for some soldiers from some random location (which should still garner respect). These people lived here, attended here, left here, and never came back. I'm personally embarrassed that I've never noticed it. I'm even more disheartened that so many people blindly pass it without even a glance of respect or acknowledgement.
Although I rarely use the main entrance, I also was unaware of this placard. I will have to look for it the next time I use it though. I also feel that OPRF places too much emphasis on professional sports players that attended, rather than the heroes that walked the same halls as we did. Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds, attended OPRF, and left school at 16 to become an ambulance driver during he war (WWI or WWII I don't remember). He later founded one of the most successful companies in the history of the world. I wouldn't have even know about that if not for wikipedia, but I did know that Iman Shumpert attended OPRF, from the braggy administrators and coordinators at school assemblies.
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