Memorial Day Observance

MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCE -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 06, 2006)

* Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with my colleagues in the House the text of a Memorial Day speech delivered by the Mayor of Largo, Florida, Mrs. Patricia Gerard.

* Like so many of my colleagues in the House, I was honored to attend numerous Memorial Day services in my Congressional District to pay tribute to those who have sacrificed greatly in defense of our great Nation. It is always humbling to join with veterans young and old and to share moments of remembrance with the families that survive them. Those that we honored on Memorial Day have secured our freedom and our safety, and this point could not have been more clearly made than by Mayor Gerard's comments and her reference to the words of Mr. Charles M. Province.

* I submit to you the text of Mayor Gerard's Memorial Day remarks so that we may all reflect on the debt we owe to our men and women in uniform.

Memorial Day is the time for Americans to reconnect with their history and core values by honoring those who gave their lives for the ideals we cherish.

More than a million American service members have died in the wars and conflicts this nation fought since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 to fight for independence. Each person who died during those conflicts was a loved one cherished by family and friends. Each was a loss to the community and the nation.

We in this country owe a great debt of gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives so that we could live free. We can start to pay that debt by not forgetting, by remembering what they did and what they stood for.

In the words of Charles M. Province:

It is the Soldier, not the reporter,

Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet,

Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer,

Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the Soldier, not the lawyer,

Who has given us the right to a fair trial; And I would say:

And it is the Soldier--who leaves his or her family and goes off to war,

Who allows the protester to speak out against that war.

Far too often, the nation as a whole takes for granted the freedoms all Americans enjoy. Those freedoms were paid for with the lives of others few of us actually knew. That's why they are all collectively remembered on one special day.

Please join me as we all remember those men and women who have made our way of life possible.

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