In Memory: A Memorial Day Tribute

"The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us. Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan " -General John A. Logan's Memorial Day Order, Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic, General Orders No.11, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868 

"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars afar away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives, the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember " -Ronald Reagan

"Our wars have won for us every hour we live in freedom. Our wars have taken from us the men and women we honor today, and every hour of the lifetimes they had hoped to live " - President George W. Bush, Memorial Day 2002.

"Siding with tyrants in the name of peace is a recipe for disaster. Empowering of murderers for the sake of human rights is a guarantee of further bloodshed. And the inability to distinguish right from wrong is a prelude to our own destruction " -Lowell Phillips

"The real world requires difficult moral choices. But try as we might, we cannot avoid making them. We should choose to side with those who support our values, however imperfectly, and against those who violently oppose our values. The real world is a dangerous place filled with dangerous people. Severe myopia can be a fatal handicap. Mr. Magoo makes an amusing cartoon character but a poor role model and a lousy statesman. We have eyes with which to see the evildoers in the world. We have ears to hear the cries of those who suffer under tyranny. It is our duty to use them. Otherwise, we are foolish people, and without understanding " -David C. Stolinsky

"Today is a celebration of those who didn't come home with the rest of us. We remember that their lives were cut short, their life's chapters closed in the paddies, jungles and mountains of Vietnam. Perhaps the greatest honor the rest of us can bestow is to regard our own lives as sacred and full of meaning. It is difficult to stay above the quagmire of feelings left from our experiences but what better way to salute our brothers and sisters in arms than to rise above the pain of their deaths and give freely of ourselves to others." -Marine veteran Robert Sasse

"But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. " - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863.