What drove LNB's decision to turn premium real estate into a park space honoring Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients?
By María Eugenia Guerra
“While the nation as a whole has neglected the memory of veterans, as a city Laredo does a great deal to honor its veterans. We are patriots, exhibiting a national loyalty that is cultural in nature,” said Laredo National Bank CEO Gary Jacobs as he and LNB's public relations director Sharyn Jordan exchanged ideas on the bank's donation of park space honoring Hispanic Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.
The park, which sits neatly in the shadow of the bank's Flag Park of the Americas and its 50-foot by 100-foot American flag on a 300-foot pole, also sits on some valuable, highly visible commercial real estate at the corner of Matamoros and San Dario.
“We believed a monument of this importance to Laredo veterans should have this kind of visibility,” Jacobs said. “I was taken by the news story about the proposed monument and that the veterans wanted Armando Hinojosa to design and cast the sculpture for the monument. The Veteran's Coalition honored the bank by accepting our offer to locate the monument here.”
“The park was a perfect fit for the Flag Park of the Americas ,” said Jordan, who with designer Bill Luft built the colorful concrete and mosaic benches that grace the site. “We have protected that old mesquite tree for years,” Jordan said of the gnarled tree at the Matamoros edge of the LNB property. “We maintain the site and lease it to the City of Laredo for a dollar a year.”
Jacobs said he would like to see other monuments added to the park space, including one for the Gold Star Mothers of Vietnam veterans.
“We may not celebrate Cinco de Mayo like they do in Austin , but whether Hispanic or Anglo, Catholic or Jew, we are very patriotic in Laredo . We are more reflective about the sacrifices of service men and women. That the bank could honor veterans in this permanent rather than temporal way is in itself an honor for us,” Jacobs said.
“ Washington should be humiliated for its treatment of veterans. Retired veterans should live better than others in return for their sacrifice, but they do not because they have no clout in Washington where policy is driven by money and self-interest. Veterans have an inadequate support mechanism and no lobby in Washington to speak for their needs. Some veterans just get by. We can at least accord them the honor they deserve,” Jacobs said.
“I have over the years met many Laredo veterans and have never met one who doesn't deserve praise and respect. They are selfless men and women,” he said.
Jordan said the park is open to all veterans' activities. “The park is theirs. The City and the veterans set the agenda for its use,” she said.
“We have learned over the last two years how important the American flag is, what it represents as a symbol,” Jacobs said. “Our flag is now part of the horizon,” he said of the Flag Park of the Americas . “We have flag watchers who call when it is not up. There is usually a very good reason for why it is not flying, usually the weather,” he said, adding that the LNB flag has been replaced five times since it was first raised Memorial Day 2002.
The LNB flag, which can never be lowered in a north wind, is raised and lowered by a mechanism within the pole, which is buried in 30 feet of concrete. It takes several bank employees to manage maneuvers for a flag that flies atop a pole registered with the Federal Aviation Agency. The 5.5-foot diameter ball atop the pole is mounted on a truck axle. The high dollar lights atop the ball are changed by crane.
