Weekly remarks: Obama says Memorial Day is important time

Remarks by President Obama, as provided by the White House

This weekend, as we celebrate Memorial Day, families across America will gather in backyards and front porches, fire up the barbeque, kick back with friends and spend time with people they care about. That is as it should be. But I also hope that as you do so, you’ll take some time to reflect on what Memorial Day is all about; on why we set this day aside as a time of national remembrance.

It’s fitting every day to pay tribute to the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America. Still, there are certain days that have been set aside for all of us to do so. Veterans Day is one such day – when we are called to honor Americans who’ve fought under our country’s flag.

Our calling on Memorial Day is different. On this day, we honor not just those who’ve worn this....

...country’s uniform, but the men and women who’ve died in its service; who’ve laid down their lives in defense of their fellow citizens; who’ve given their last full measure of devotion to protect the United States of America. These are the men and women I will be honoring this weekend, and I know many of you are doing the same.

There are any number of reasons America emerged from its humble beginnings as a cluster of colonies to become the most prosperous, most powerful nation on earth. There is the hard work, the resilience, and the character of our people. There is the ingenuity and enterprising spirit of our entrepreneurs and innovators. There are the ideals of opportunity, equality and freedom that have not only inspired our people to perfect our own union, but inspired others to perfect theirs as well.

But from the very start, there was also something more. A steadfast commitment to serve, to fight, and if necessary, to die, to preserve America and advance the ideals we cherish. It’s a commitment witnessed at each defining moment along the journey of this country. It’s what led a rag-tag militia to face British soldiers at Lexington and Concord. It’s what led young men, in a country divided half slave and half free, to take up arms to save our union. It’s what led patriots in each generation to sacrifice their own lives to secure the life of our nation, from the trenches of World War I to the battles of World War II, from Inchon and Khe Sanh, from Mosul to Marjah.

That commitment – that willingness to lay down their lives so we might inherit the blessings of this nation – is what we honor today. But on this Memorial Day, as on every day, we are called to honor their ultimate sacrifice with more than words. We are called to honor them with deeds.

We are called to honor them by doing our part for the loved ones our fallen heroes have left behind and looking after our military families. By making sure the men and women serving this country around the world have the support they need to achieve their missions and come home safely. By making sure veterans have the care and assistance they need.  In short, by serving all those who have ever worn the uniform of this country – and their families – as well as they have served us.

On April 25, 1866, about a year after the Civil War ended, a group of women visited a cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi, to place flowers by the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen at Shiloh. As they did, they noticed other graves nearby, belonging to Union dead. But no one had come to visit those graves, or place a flower there. So they decided to lay a few stems for those men too, in recognition not of a fallen Confederate or a fallen Union soldier, but a fallen American.

A few years later, an organization of Civil War veterans established what became Memorial Day, selecting a date that coincided with the time when flowers were in bloom. So this weekend, as we commemorate Memorial Day, I ask you to hold all our fallen heroes in your hearts, and if you can, to lay a flower where they have come to rest.    ####

NOTE TO READERS: At publication time early Saturday the weekly remarks from the Republican Party had not been received.

Photo: Pete Souza / White House (file).

Comments

[GaGator]

Look Obama, get your trashy feet off the peoples desk!

[McCool]

So important that we will skip the speech on go on vacation?

[Paul Revere]

Who cares what this hack has to say. You notice this is not even released by the real press it is a pre-written piece by his own cohorts, something like what his counsel does spends months on putting together manure that can try and fool the public! And slick did you buy that desk with your own money...did not think so..so I guess your mother never told you to put your manure stomping pieces of leather on furniture that does not belong to you! Probably do not teach that stuff from wherever you are from!

[Eric M. Washington]

So I guess it’s too much to expect that GaGator, McCool, or Paul Revere even bothered to read the President’s Remarks. Much less understand the point of the statement. It was not about the President, his politics, or any agenda. It was simply a reminder of what Memorial Day is about.

Somehow I can’t imagine that any of these guys ever served in the military, but I bet that they all have a relative that did. I wouldn’t be surprised that if they spent as much time investigating the matter as they have spent deriding the President, they may find that at least one of their relatives has died in service of our country.

This is what Memorial Day is about remembering those that have fallen in service to Our Nation.