Speech to Remember Our Fallen

[June 21, 2023]  I’ll be giving a speech honoring our fallen military personnel from WWI to present this weekend.  The South Jersey Volunteers for Veterans Boot Memorial will have a three-day display with the names of local citizens who gave their lives for our country.  I’m one of the closing ceremony speakers.  Please take a look at my draft speech.  Recommendations from readers are welcome.  It does need a bit of polish.  Thank you.  Remember our fallen.

In America, for over two centuries, ordinary folks held up their right hand as they swore to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  From that small beginning, our military personnel began a journey that took them where very few dare go.

Why do people look up to those who lost their lives in defense of our Nation?  The answer is simple: because of their values and the ultimate sacrifice they made.

We celebrate their praiseworthy values –  honor, excellence, accountability, integrity, commitment, discipline, respect for tradition, and courage.  Some call these values “old fashioned”; the wise call them “proven and insightful.”

People today run away from discomfort, to say nothing of danger.  As you know, our military specializes in discomfort!   Our troops run to danger!   America is forgetting a human truth that our dead have not: the greatest things are always the hardest things.

 Our military is a fighting force, but even more a fighting spirit.  We have jets and artillery and warships and tanks, but our values are our greatest weapons.  We stand watch as guardians of the greatest tradition of mankind.  Be courageous.  Speak the truth even if you are the only one who will.  Preserve, nurture and spread our values in a land where they are scarce.  Especially today, where it is expected and rewarded to lie, cheat or steal.  The media, academia, and politicians make lucrative careers by encouraging it.  And now, in the last two years, we are seeing Generals & Admirals become infected by this same idea.  Sad.

For the past few days, the Southern Jersey Volunteers for Veterans has called upon you in Remembrance of those killed in service to our Nation.  Even if for one minute, remember those who died in military service to the United States.

Reflect upon how you benefit from fallen Americans’ sacrifice of their lives.  Do so every time you exercise our Constitutional rights.  You are able to attend religious services of your choice, speak freely, possess firearms, peaceably assemble, and vote.  Public officials do not secure these rights.  Instead, they have been paid for in blood by those who willingly risked their lives to protect ours.  As the saying goes, “All gave some, some gave all.”

War, they say, is an evil that solves nothing.  They claim that it is the folly of the powerful to thrust upon us the deadly battlefield.  We are taught that war is the sin of humans and that it is easily stopped; if only we could be more mature, tolerant, respectful, and thoughtful.  So we are told that lives would be saved, and suffering would be banished.   Nothing could be further from the truth.

I do not advocate for war but I know that evil exists in all our hearts.  And, too many have witnessed the horrors of battle and realized the cost in lives and national treasurer.  However, there are times when war is the only choice to stop evil.  For example, our Civil War rid this great Nation of the evil of slavery.  Then again, in World War II, surrender had to be “unconditional” for the Axis Powers to end their tyrannical evils.  The total elimination of these threats was necessary.  And it worked.

Today, most scholars, media reporters, elected officials, and leaders of great corporations – famous and popular men and women of great achievement – call for comfort and equity for all.  That we should obtain it without cost, effort, or danger.  And, why not?   Isn’t it our RIGHT, they say?  And they tell us that the love of country is an outdated idea, an “old wives’ tale” and criminalized and imprisoned for those of us who think so.   Instead, they say it should be replaced by a focus on equal outcome for us all and accomplished through a woke ideology that says you can chose your damn pronoun of your choice, mock religion, destroy the family, or maybe even through drag-queen and strip shows for young children.  That, they say, will make the world a better place.   We know better.

In the small Louisiana town I was raised, I got to know many young men who returned from war.   They were open and scary, and honest about their experiences and told stories of their comrades who never returned from battle.   As a little boy, they frightened me, but they helped make my brother, my friends, and me who we are today.   They taught us, kids, what it meant to be brave and to be a man.   They taught us the great strength of brotherhood, the importance of believing in God, the value of and appreciation for family and friendships, and being truthful and honorable.   They were good men.

On this Day, we must not forget the lives sacrificed for us to enjoy our earned freedoms in the United States, accepting responsibility for your actions, telling the full and unadulterated truth, while continuing to deal with Evil in its many forms.   We must always Remember them!

Thank you, and God Bless.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).