How do Americans view Memorial Day? Past President’s and historians have delivered some memorable speeches and have penned what many Americans feel and some already know… freedom is not free. On this Memorial Day 2013 we recognize the sacrifices of those who have prematurely gone before us in defense of each American past and present, and especially those we will never get a chance to meet.
May 26, 2007 President's Radio Address
Good morning. This Memorial Day weekend, Americans honor those who have given their lives in service to our Nation. As we pay tribute to the brave men and women who died for our freedom, we also honor those who are defending our liberties around the world today.
On Wednesday, I met with some of the courageous young men and women who will soon take their place in the defense of our Nation: the graduating class of the United States Coast Guard Academy. Since its inception, the Coast Guard has patrolled and protected America's shores. And in this time of war, the Coast Guard has assumed new
responsibilities to defend our Nation against terrorist infiltration and help stop new
attacks. I was proud to stand with the Class of 2007 and thank them for their bold
decision to wear the uniform.
The men and women of the Coast Guard are fighting alongside soldiers, sailors, airmen,
and Marines who have also volunteered to protect America. We live in freedom because
patriots such as these are willing to serve, and many have given their lives in defense
of our Nation. On Monday, I will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor
those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in their country's cause.
One of those who gave his life was Sergeant David Christoff, Jr., of Rossford, Ohio. The
day after the attacks of September the 11th, David walked into a recruiting station to
become a United States Marine. Asked why he made the decision to serve, David said: "I don't want my brother and sister to live in fear." David eventually deployed to Iraq,
where he fought street by street in the battle of Fallujah and earned a Purple Heart for
wounds suffered in action.
While on leave back home, David learned his company was headed for combat in
Afghanistan. But he knew there was also a job to finish in Iraq. So he asked to be
reassigned to a unit headed for Iraq, and last May he died in Anbar province where the
Marines are taking the fight to al Qaeda. When his family received his belongings, his
mother and his father each found a letter from David. He asked that they pray for his
fellow Marines and all those still serving overseas.
On Memorial Day, our Nation honors Sergeant Christoff's final request. We pray for our
men and women serving in harm's way. We pray for their safe return. And we pray for
their families and loved ones, who also serve our country with their support and sacrifice.
On Memorial Day, we rededicate ourselves to freedom's cause. In Iraq and Afghanistan, millions have shown their desire to be free. We are determined to help them secure their liberty. Our troops are helping them build democracies that respect the rights of their people, uphold the rule of law, and fight extremists alongside America in the war on terror. With the valor and determination of our men and women in uniform, I am confident that we will succeed and leave a world that is safer and more peaceful for our children and grandchildren.
On Memorial Day, we also pay tribute to Americans from every generation who have given their lives for our freedom. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, brave men and women have given up their own futures so that others might have a future of freedom. Because of their sacrifice, millions here and around the world enjoy the blessings of liberty. And wherever these patriots rest, we offer them the respect and gratitude of our Nation.
Thank you for listening.
President George W. Bush
May 31, 1999 - Arlington National Cemetery
Since the Civil War, Memorial Day has been a time for Americans to take a moment from our busy lives to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our Nation.
This has been a century of great progress for the United States, but we must never forget that it came with a heavy price. At home and abroad, our victories over adversity were made possible by those who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, and those who did make that sacrifice.
Today most Americans will enjoy a well deserved day off from the cares of work and school; we'll relax at home and cherish the company of loved ones. But as we contemplate the comforts and blessings of our lives and the well being of our Nation, I ask you to pause just for a moment to remember those who gave their lives to protect the values that give meaning to our lives…
As our Armed Forces and our Allies strive to build peace in the Balkans, and in other places far from America's shores, let us all join in thanking them for all they do every day to defend our freedom.
President Bill Clinton
May 25, 1992
For many, Memorial Day signals summer's arrival. Families will pull out the picnic baskets and charcoal grills and head for the beach or the park. But more importantly, Memorial Day is one of our Nation's most solemn observances.
On this sacred day, we honor those Americans who died fighting for freedom. We pause to remember, to think about the meaning of the loss of brave men and women who did not return from the battle. And in cemeteries all across this great land, people will place flags or lay bouquets on quiet graves "where valor proudly sleeps.''
On this day, we must tell the stories of those who fought and died in freedom's cause. We must tell their stories because those who've lost loved ones need to know that a grateful Nation will always remember. We must tell their stories so that our children and grandchildren will understand what our lives might have been like had it not been for their sacrifice. The thousands of us who fought alongside brave friends who fell will never hear ``Taps'' played without remembering them, nor will their families and friends.
So, let us remember the cause for which these Americans fought and the freedom and peace bought with their life's blood, and let us pass along to a new generation the awesome accounts of honor and courage…
These reminders are important, for as someone said, ``Memory performs the impossible for man, holds together past and present.'' So then, we who are left must nurture the sacred memories of those who paid the ultimate price. And we must let their sacrifices give meaning and purpose to our Nation's future. Because they fought, we have freedoms many all too often take for granted. And because of their sacrifice, our children can sleep soundly without the threat of nuclear war hanging over their heads.
May God bless the families of all whom we honor. And may God bless the United States of America.
President George Bush
May 26, 1983
Memorial Day is a time to take stock of the present, reflect on the past, and renew our commitment to the future of America.
Today, as in the past, there are problems that must be solved and challenges that must be met. We can tackle them with our full strength and creativity only because we are free to work them out in our own way. We owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interests in time of need. In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free.
I don't have to tell you how fragile this precious gift of freedom is. Every time we hear, watch, or read the news, we are reminded that liberty is a rare commodity in this world.
This Memorial Day of 1983, we honor those brave Americans who died in the service of their country. I think an ancient scholar put it well when he wrote: ``Let us now praise famous men . . . All these were honored in their generation, and were the glory of their times. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.'' As a tribute to their sacrifice, let us renew our resolve to remain strong enough to deter aggression, wise enough to preserve and protect our freedom, and thoughtful enough to promote lasting peace throughout the world.
President Ronald Reagan
May 30, 1963 Gettysburg PA
On this hallowed ground, heroic deeds were performed and eloquent words were
spoken a century ago.
We, the living, have not forgotten--and the world will never forget--the deeds
or the words of Gettysburg. We honor them now as we join on this Memorial Day
of 1963 in a prayer for permanent peace of the world and fulfillment of our hopes
for universal freedom and justice.
We are called to honor our own words of reverent prayer with resolution in the
deeds we must perform to preserve peace and the hope of freedom.
We keep a vigil of peace around the world.
Until the world knows no aggressors, until the arms of tyranny have been laid
down, until freedom has risen up in every land, we shall maintain our vigil to
make sure our sons who died on foreign fields shall not have died in vain.
As we maintain the vigil of peace, we must remember that justice is a vigil,
too--a vigil we must keep in our own streets and schools and among the lives of
all our people--so that those who died here on their native soil shall not have
died in vain…
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
May 30, 1884, at Keene, NH, before John Sedgwick Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Not long ago I heard a young man ask why people still kept up Memorial Day, and it set me thinking of the answer. Not the answer that you and I should give to each other-not the expression of those feelings that, so long as you live, will make this day sacred to memories of love and grief and heroic youth--but an answer which should command the assent of those who do not share our memories, and in which we of the North and our brethren of the South could join in perfect accord…commemorating a soldier's death with feelings not different in kind, whether he fell toward them or by their side.
But Memorial Day may and ought to have a meaning also for those who do not share our memories. When men have instinctively agreed to celebrate an anniversary, it will be found that there is some thought of feeling behind it which is too large to be dependent upon associations alone…it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return.
So to the indifferent inquirer who asks why Memorial Day is still kept up we may answer, it celebrates and solemnly reaffirms from year to year a national act of enthusiasm and faith. It embodies in the most impressive form our belief that to act with enthusiasm and faith is the condition of acting greatly. To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might. So must you do to carry anything else to an end worth reaching. More than that, you must be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out. All that is required of you is that you should go some whither as hard as ever you can. The rest belongs to fate. One may fall-at the beginning of the charge or at the top of the earthworks; but in no other way can he reach the rewards of victory.
When it was felt so deeply as it was on both sides that a man ought to take part in the war unless some conscientious scruple or strong practical reason made it impossible, was that feeling simply the requirement of a local majority that their neighbors should agree with them? I think not: I think the feeling was right-in the South as in the North. I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived…We can hardly share the emotions that make this day to us the most sacred day of the year, and embody them in ceremonial pomp, without in some degree imparting them to those who come after us…But even if I am wrong, even if those who come after us are to forget all that we hold dear, and the future is to teach and kindle its children in ways as yet unrevealed, it is enough for us that this day is dear and sacred.
…But as surely as this day comes round we are in the presence of the dead. For one hour, twice a year at least--at the regimental dinner, where the ghosts sit at table more numerous than the living, and on this day when we decorate their graves--the dead come back and live with us.
It is not of the dead alone that we think on this day. There are those still living whose sex forbade them to offer their lives, but who gave instead their happiness. Which of us has not been lifted above himself by the sight of one of those lovely, lonely women, around whom the wand of sorrow has traced its excluding circle--set apart
…Comrades, some of the associations of this day are not only triumphant, but joyful. Not all of those with whom we once stood shoulder to shoulder--not all of those whom we once loved and revered--are gone. On this day we still meet our companions in the freezing winter bivouacs and in those dreadful summer marches where every faculty of the soul seemed to depart one after another, leaving only a dumb animal power to set the teeth and to persist-- a blind belief that somewhere and at last there was bread and water. On this day, at least, we still meet and rejoice in the closest tie which is possible between men-- a tie which suffering has made indissoluble for better, for worse.
…Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death--of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen , the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will.
You can find more Memorial Day remarks from past Presidents and historians at
http://www.usmemorialday.org/remarks.html and http://people.virginia.edu/~mmd5f/memorial.htm#meaning
God Bless America!
