Cleaver, Bond, and McCaskill Introduce Bills to Commemorate the World War I Centennial in Kansas City
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Kit Bond and Claire McCaskill and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II yesterday introduced a pair of bills that establish a World War I Centennial Commission and dedicate the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri as a national memorial.
“This bipartisan effort is a tribute to the 4 million men and women who sacrificed and risked their lives for the freedom we enjoy today,” said Bond. “For decades, Missouri has been home to the only museum in the country dedicated to telling the story of our World War I heroes, making this museum the site of our national memorial and the home base for the Centennial celebration just makes sense.”
“The Liberty Memorial is something all Missourians can be deeply proud of and it deserves to be recognized as the National World War I Memorial,” McCaskill said. “All those who served and sacrificed in WWI earned this national acknowledgement, as did the people of Missouri who chose to so humbly honor those veterans with the construction and long term care of the Liberty Memorial.”
“For more than 80 years hundreds of thousands of veterans of World War I, and their families, have come to the Liberty Memorial to remember lost friends and loved ones. Dedicated by the Supreme Allied Generals and consecrated by the President of the United States, the citizens of Missouri have long kept the sacred memory of those who sacrificed in the Great War," said Congressman Cleaver. “Like the sphinxes that guard the monument, I fear that some today are covering their eyes to the past. America needs reminded that the Liberty Memorial has served as the nation's monument to the honored dead of World War I since 1926, a time when the wounds were still fresh from the battlefield. Selecting another monument site does not honor the thousands who have cried and prayed for their loved ones in the shadow of the Liberty Memorial. These bills are for those no longer with us so that their monument stays forever where they built it - high on a hill in the heart of America.”
Today, there is no nationally recognized memorial honoring the nearly 4 million Americans who served in World War I. However, Kansas City, Missouri has long been the home to the National World War I Museum, the only museum in the country solely dedicated to World War I. The bill introduced by Bond, McCaskill, and Cleaver will rename the memorial located at the museum – the Liberty Memorial – as the National World War I Memorial.
As America approaches the 100th anniversary of World War I, the bipartisan group emphasized that it is important to establish a commission that will properly honor the Americans who sacrificed and risked their lives in the war. In response to this need, the bipartisan group also introduced a bill that creates a centennial commission based in Kansas City comprised of twenty-four members appointed from across the country. The commission will help organize businesses, and state and local governments to develop and execute centennial programs.
Together, the pair bill of bills commemorating the veterans of World War I will make Kansas City a focal point in the planning and development of centennial activities. The renaming of the Liberty Memorial and centennial commission location is fitting as the city is already home to the national headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a federally charted war veteran’s organization of 1.6 million members. Both bills are supported by the entire Missouri delegation.