Ronald Reagan
Memorial Day is about honoring the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died in the service of their country – and for former President Ronald Reagan, the somberness of the occasion was never overshadowed by barbeques, picnics and swimming pool openings.
He said, in the lead-up to travel to the then-Soviet Union to negotiate a nuclear arms agreement: Let’s hope for peace, prepare for war and remember the sacrifices of those who died in military service to America.
“In America’s cities and towns today, flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries,” Reagan said, more than 30 years ago, Hot Air posted.
Reagan then referred to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the marking of those who gave their “last full measure of devotion” as the ultimate sacrifice in speeches.
“I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country,” Reagan said then. “Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.”
He then said: “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.”
Reagan called it a “wonder and mystery” that so many Americans were wiling to give their lives so that U.S. citizens could be free, from the “heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GIs of World War II or Korea or Vietnam,” he said.
And he wrapped by calling on the nation to always remember.
“As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation,” he said. “And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.”
Memorial Day has been a national holiday for more than 40 years as a way of remembering those who served in the U.S. military. The holiday actually started after the Civil War when May 30 was established as “Decoration Day,” to place flowers at veterans’ graves. Politicians declared Memorial Day a nationwide holiday in 1971, setting it for the last Monday in May.
In 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Act was signed into law to “encourage all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service for the nation,” the Department of Veterans Affairs website says.
from Propaganda Guard http://propguard.tumblr.com/post/119849007523
from Tumblr http://lisahcnease.tumblr.com/post/119849601332
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