Memorial Day 2012

“Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13 (New King James Version)

Memorial Day, is a Federal Holiday that annually sets aside the last Monday of May to honor the men and women who have died in all of America’s wars. Originally known as Decoration Day after the Civil War to honor and decorate the graves of the fallen Union Soldiers.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives so that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 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.”

To the brave men and women that so proudly and honorably served under the colors of The United States Armed Forces, I honor you, I salute you, but most of all, I THANK YOU! Without your sacrifice and that of the brave souls that never made it home, I would not have the blessing-filled life I enjoy, with all guaranteed liberty, and the full pursuit of happiness constitutionally afforded me.


Time and time again throughout America’s illustrious 236-year history, it has been the blood sweat, and tears, and all too often the very lives of the American Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, and Marine, to answer the call to raise up a standard against those that would threaten to destroy our way of life. Today we proudly stand on their honored shoulders. I pray for America’s resolve to remain vigilant and strong, under the call of building upon the rock-solid foundation toiled and tooled for us. We must stand as stalwart examples for those who will continue the fight, emboldening them to stave off any adversary opposed to America’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Freedom is never free; thousands died to gain it, millions have died to keep it, and one willingly died to offer it!

God Bless America!