Memorial Day 2009

“Yet, we must try to honor them -- not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.”

“Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we -- in a less final, less heroic way -- be willing to give of ourselves.”

(an excerpt from the remarks of President Ronald Reagan on
Memorial Day 1982 at Arlington National Cemetery)

On this Memorial Day, we honor and remember the sacrifice of our fallen heroes. Whether near or far, they paid the ultimate price in service to our country – their lives discreetly woven into the fabric of our nation. The lesson their lives and deaths teach us has remained the same throughout our history: freedom is the gift bestowed upon those nations with individuals willing to bravely stake their claim to the unalienable rights we have been given by our Creator. I am thankful for the brave men and women who have, for over two centuries, answered the call each and every time we found our freedom perilously close to extinction. Their willingness to, in the words of President Kennedy, “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty” is incontrovertible. No higher compliment can be paid one of our fallen. 

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