—Photos by Macklin Reid
The following speech was prepared by David Nica, Jackson Cherner, Liam Baughman, and First Selectman Rudy Marconi and delivered by Marconi on Memorial Day.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me this afternoon in recognizing this Memorial Day occasion. Each year, we set aside this day to commemorate the men and women who have given their lives for our country. Today we honour their commitment and remember to whom we owe our liberty, our freedom, and our way of life.
Since its very beginning, Memorial Day has been a day of united gratitude and appreciation. The holiday grew out of the aftermath of the Civil War, when our country sought to heal the deepest, most divisive wounds in its short history. In the South, a tradition emerged of war widows decorating the graves of fallen soldiers and of freed slaves memorialising battle sites. The North adopted similar demonstrations of remembrance, and soon the practices became one inclusive observation of the military lives claimed by war. In 1868 Memorial Day was officially proclaimed, and after World War I the holiday expanded to represent a collective recognition of all American lives lost in all armed conflicts.
Today, Memorial Day continues to represent a day of united purpose in honouring those Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We must remember to commemorate them for who they were and what they did.
We stand united in celebrating their lives so that neither their efforts for us, nor our indebtedness to them, will ever be forgotten.
Memorial Day also serves as a reminder for us to uphold American values in our everyday lives. Each soldier who has given their life for this country was acutely aware of the risks they faced. Yet despite the extraordinary perils involved in their dangerous and difficult jobs, they performed them anyway. These men and women saw something worthwhile in the red, white, and blue of the American flag. They saw something noble, some greater cause worth fighting and dying for.
The best way to honor our fallen heroes as well as our current service-members is to preserve the American values they fought to uphold. While the military is protecting our way of life, we as civilians have our own sacred duty, one which we owe to ourselves and our men and women in uniform. It is our obligation to defend the principles which distinguish this nation and comprise our moral integrity. These include the equality of all men and women; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the sovereignty of the individual; and the freedoms of speech, faith, and expression.
In a world still threatened by conflict and struggle, we must channel our patriotism toward honouring those soldiers who put their lives on hold and fought for our country to protect us. From our soldiers on the ground to those flying fighter jets in the skies, every one of them knew the risks they were taking, and knew that their sacrifice would not be in vain. Their commitment exemplifies the foundations of freedom and liberty we all hold dear and maintains them for posterity. We can never, never forget those who faced the true tests of freedom, in order to protect our country.
In 1868, Major General John Logan ordered his posts to decorate Union cemeteries, saying: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic”.
In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies
Thank you and God Bless America!
The post Memorial Day: Photos and first selectman’s speech appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.