By Dawn’s Early Light
I do not know how many funerals are happening in Milwaukee today, but I know there is one. I’ll get to that one in just a bit, but let me tell you how I know, first.
Poynette is not a big village, and we don’t have a big staff. So everyone’s bucket of things to do overflows from time to time because we just don’t have enough Village staff to be as task-specialized as larger municipalities. When I first arrived in Davenport there was an employee whose principal job was to make copies on green paper. Seriously. That changed, but as I left almost fourteen years later, we still called the staff reports compiled into packets for City Council meetings “green sheets”.
When the new city manager or village administrator arrives in Anytown USA, there is always some shuffling of task responsibilities. And in that shuffle, one of the things that staff watches closely is just how much gets shuffled up or shuffled down. If you only shuffle work down, that is a huge -- reputation-making -- mistake.
Ok. So, one of the tasks that got talked about in Poynette was who raises and lowers the United States flag at Village Hall. At the time, we did not have any department with 24/7 coverage, so there was no department that could do it at dawn and dusk without adding people, on call. At the time, I lived a block away and was committed enough to living in town that we built a house three blocks away. So I just took on the task. No big deal.
I’ll give you a hint about where this is going by noting Governor Evers is not at all shy about issuing flag-lowering orders. It is a bit of a joke that if a Wisconsin legislator has served long enough, and gets enough of a cold to be noticeably sniffling in the Capitol, I might be trudging over to Village Hall at dawn to pay homage to that legislator’s tireless public service.
I don’t live three blocks from every Village building so the question about the task of raising and lowering the stars and stripes other than at Village Hall was framed by staff into a question about whether we should be flying flags at Village buildings, generally. So, I answered that by saying let’s let the Village Board answer that question with a vote on a resolution.
Here is good place to note that one of the things I love most about The Replacements is, for all of their ironic detachment punk veneer, their songs were proto-emo in terms of unabashedly wearing their hearts on their ripped sleeves.
Should Village buildings fly United States flags? Golly, I dunno. The resolution I drafted went like this:
A RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE DISPLAY OF THE UNITED STATES FLAG ON THE APPROPRIATE EXISTING FLAGPOLE AT ANY VILLAGE BUILDING
WHEREAS, a flag designating American independence first appeared in Philadelphia Harbor on December 3, 1775, raised aboard the Alfred, by newly commissioned Lieutenant John Paul Jones; and,
WHEREAS, a United States flag has continuously flown over American soil and territorial waters ever since; and,
WHEREAS, the mere hope that the United States flag would be still flying over Fort McHenry by dawn’s early light on September 14, 1814, having withstood the British navy’s bombardment through the night preceding, gave rise to our stirring national anthem; and,
WHEREAS, wherever darkness of evil has ever temporarily gained an advantage, the United States flag, and the people who wear it, have beaten evil back to the hell from whence it came, be it at Gettysburg, Dachau, Mount Suribachi, or Abbottobad, Pakistan; and
WHEREAS, wherever the United States flag has flown, it is a symbol of freedom, progress and the fundamental power of the human spirit to throw off the shackles of tyranny to dare great deeds, be they in the sciences, arts or social advancement; and
WHEREAS, though a flag of American independence has only flown for an eye-blinking moment in the span of human time, no flag from any other nation has inspired so many, saved so many from oppression or gone so far as ours, having slipped the surly bounds of Earth to be hammered into a celestial body by fearless American hands, or having entered interstellar space aboard Voyager 1; and,
WHEREAS, while the 30th star in the field of fifty on the United States flag may be difficult to discern as the red, white and blue flies anywhere over the inarguably most beautiful state in the Union, that 30th star represents the great state of Wisconsin; and,
WHEREAS, like other towns, villages and cities across America, the Village of Poynette exists through powers granted by one of the states, represented by one of the stars, on the United States flag; and,
WHEREAS, the subtle understanding that any and every American, in blood or spirit, anywhere they may be, has the liberty and freedom to dare yet another great deed, watched over by the indomitable stars and stripes, is the transformative and unifying purpose of the United States flag.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Village of Poynette Village Board of Trustees directs the United States flag be proudly flown from the appropriate existing flagpole at every Village-owned building.
The resolution passed, of course.
Yesterday, Governor Evers' Executive Order #273 lands in the email inbox. In its entirety, it reads:
Gov. Evers Orders Flags to Half-Staff in Honor of Army Private First Class Leon R. Karwacki Who Lost His Life in World War II
MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers signed Executive Order #273 ordering the flags of the United States and the state of Wisconsin to be flown at half-staff on Wed., Sept. 10, 2025, in honor of U.S. Army Private First Class Leon R. Karwacki, who lost his life in World War II at the age of 27 and whose remains have been identified and returned to Wisconsin for burial.
“Private First Class Leon R. Karwacki was a hero who selflessly answered the call to serve and gave his life defending the values and freedoms we hold most dear,” said Gov. Evers. “We are forever grateful for his service and sacrifice, and it is an honor to welcome Private First Class Karwacki back to his home state so that he may be finally laid to rest.”
From Milwaukee, Private First Class Karwacki was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 36th Armored Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Division, and in September 1944, his battalion advanced against enemy forces near Stolberg, Germany. On Sept. 17, 1944, Private First Class Karwacki was killed during an attack, and due to the intensity of enemy fire, his body could not be recovered. Having made the ultimate sacrifice, Private First Class Karwacki was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and other campaign honors recognizing his brave service. In 1945, American graves registration personnel recovered a set of unidentified remains and subsequently interred them at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium. In June 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains and sent them to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory for analysis. Using dental, anthropological, and circumstantial evidence, the remains of Private First Class Karwacki were positively identified.
Private First Class Karwacki will be buried with full military honors on Wed., Sept. 10, 2025, in Milwaukee.
Heart on my sleeve deep breath. Eighty years passes, and PFC Karwacki can finally come home. Why that is not on the front page of every newspaper is Wisconsin is a mystery to me.
My system is to print the flag-lowering emails, take them home and set them on the kitchen island so I see them in the morning. So I do not forget them, and can walk over to Village Hall at dawn to do the task I thought better of shuffling off to someone else. Not that Executive Order #273 is forgettable in any way, I use the system anyway.
Yesterday was a day I’ll forget by next week. Fairly typical stuff – Village Hall 7:30 to 5:00, with one fire call, and then back at the fire station after dinner for a class from 6:30 – 9:00. Another day, another twelve hours of community service added to the pile of thirty-something years of adding to the pile.
But you read about PFC Karwacki, and think about the people who helped bring him home, and no amount of public service seems enough.
The sky is getting purple in the east. I have to walk over to Village Hall.
