The meaning of Memorial Day

America will celebrate Memorial Day in 2016 with the two presidential candidates, for the first time ever, having never been part of those armed services whose sacrifice we honor on that holiday.

What causes young men to bleed and to die in another hemisphere? What led brave men to fight and die in the Civil War or in our War of Independence?

The drone of politics today is all about the economy. People have plenty to eat and live in larger homes and apartments than our grandparents did. Medical care is much better now than thirty years ago. We live longer and have access to much more information and many more goods than in the past. Our greatest health problems are obesity and inactivity, and our greatest mental health problems are boredom and addiction to artificial recreation, and yet our biggest problem is...the economy?

There is virtue in prosperity and wisdom in efficient development of economic resources, but men do not die in foreign lands or in bloody battlefields in their own land for the sake of relative prosperity or to raise home prices. Young men fight and die for values much greater than the modestly important matters of income and entitlements and education.

America on Memorial Day honors those men who gave their lives so that we can be free. The language of our Declaration of Independence, of the Preamble to our Constitution, of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, of Kennedy's Inaugural Address, and of Reagan's famous proclamation at the Berlin Wall all define defense of liberty as something that costs lives as well as money because the sacrifice of blood is worth much more than any fortune or empire.

From the article:
First, spend whatever it takes for us to win wars and battles, and always spend more treasure for defense than blood for defense. Gold-plate our military. Provide the best equipment and the best training possible. Make sure each man who risks his life in combat for us has the same hardware that we would want if that man were our father or brother or son.
Second, never let crass politics or chic social engineering endanger our men in military actions or operations. This means not just that we do not send in forces or conduct drone strikes just to make our hapless president look less incompetent; it also means an end to such grotesqueries as politically demanding that women be allowed in combat, knowing that this creates battlefield hazards and lowers combat efficiency.
Third, it means that our goals in military actions deserve to be clearly defined by the political leaders who put our men in harm's way. At a minimum, Congress ought to be fully informed and consulted, and unless circumstances prevent it, the constitutional power of Congress – and Congress alone – to declare war ought to be respected. If we lack any real goal in waging war, then our political leaders ought never to set our nation's forces into combat.

Fourth, our goal any time we fight must always be to win. The defeat of those who threaten us and threaten our liberty must always be the ultimate purpose of any military action. Good leaders like Reagan may be blessed enough to hand us total victory with little or no bloodshed, but that works only when that ultimate goal is victory, not meandering from place to place looking at public opinion polls or the popularity of our leaders with other nations.

These words should be copied and sent to your lists as they are so meaningful.

..."That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.

Ronald Reagan

Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia
May 26, 1986

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

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