The Full Measure of Their Devotion
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Remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee→ |
| Delivered in Las Cruces, NM on 26 May 2008. |
On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes – and I see many of them in the audience here today – our sense of patriotism is particularly strong. Because while we father here under open skies, we know that far beyond the Oregon mountains, in the streets of Baghdad, and the outskirts of Karbala, America’s sons and daughters are sacrificing on our behalf, and our thoughts and prayers are with them.
I speak to you today with deep humility. My grandfather marched in Patton’s Army, but I cannot know what it’s like to walk into battle like so many of you. My grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line, but I cannot know personally what it is for a family to sacrifice like so many of yours have. I am the father of two young girls, and I cannot imagine what it is like to lose a child.
My heart breaks for the families who’ve lost a loved one. There are things I cannot know; but there are also things that I do know. I know that our sadness today is mixed with pride. That those we’ve lost will be remembered by a grateful nation, and that our presence here today is only possible because your loved ones – America’s patriots – were willing to give their lives to defend our nation.
I know that while we may come from different traditions, and different places, and have different political beliefs, we all – every one of us – hold in reverence those who have given this country the full measure of their devotion. And I know that children in New Mexico and across this country look to your children, to your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and friends – to those we honor here today – as a shining example of what’s best about America.
There lives are a model for us all.
What led these men and women to wear their country’s uniform? What is it that leads anyone to put aside their own pursuits of life’s comforts, to subordinate their own sense of survival for something bigger; something greater. Many of those we honor today were so young when they were killed, they had a whole life ahead of them; birthdays and weddings, holidays with children and grandchildren, homes and jobs and happiness of their own.
And yet, at one moment or another, they felt the tug, just as generations of Americans did before them. Maybe it was a massacre in a Boston square. Or a President’s call to save the Union and free the slaves. Maybe it was The Day of Infamy that awakened a nation to a storm that had gathered in the Pacific, and a madman’s death-march across Europe.
Or maybe it was the morning they woke up to see our walls of security crumble alongside our two largest towers. Whatever the moment was, when it came, and they felt that tug, perhaps it was simply the thought of a mom or a dad or a husband or a wife or a child not yet born that made this young American think it was time to go. That made them think: “I must serve so that the people I love can live: in happiness, in safety, and in freedom.”
This sense of service is what America is all about. It’s what leads Americans to enter the military. It’s what sustains them in the most difficult hours. And it is the safeguard of our security. You see, America has the greatest military in the history of the world. We have the best training, the most advanced technology, the most sophisticated planning, and the most powerful weapons.
And yet, in the end, though each of these things is absolutely critical, the true strength of our military lies someplace else. It lies in the spirit of America’s servicemen and women. No matter whether they face down fascism, or fought for freedom in Korea, in Viet Nam, liberated Kuwait, or stopped ethnic-cleansing in the Balkans, or served brilliantly and bravely under our flag today.
Not matter whether they are black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American; whether they come from old military families, or are recent immigrants, their stories tell the same truth. It is not simply their bravery and their insistence on doing their part, whatever the cost, to make America more secure and our world more free. It’s not simply an unflinching belief in our highest ideals.
It’s that, in the thick of battle, when their very survival is threatened, America’s sons and daughters aren’t thinking about themselves. They’re thinking about one another. They’re risking everything to safe not their own lives, but the lives of their fellow soldiers and sailors, airmen and marines. And when we lose them in a final act of selflessness and sacrifice, we know that they died so that their brothers and sisters, and our nation, might live.
What makes America’s servicemen and women heroes is not just their sense of duty, honor, and country. It’s the bigness of their hearts, and the breadth of their compassion. And that is what we honor here today. [[w:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes one remarked that: “to fight out a war, you must believe something, and want something, with all your might.” The Americans we honor today believed.
Sergeant Ryan Jopeck believed. Ryan was just weeks away from coming home when he volunteered for a mission to Mosul from which he would never return. His friends remember his easy smile. I remember Ryan because of the bracelet that his mother gave me that I wear every day. Next to his name it reads: “All gave some; he gave all.”
It’s a living reminder of our obligations as Americans to serve Ryan and his compatriots as well as they have served us. As well as the wounded warriors I’ve had the honor of meeting at Walter Reed have served us. As well as at Fort Bliss and the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world are serving us.
That means giving the same priority to building a 21st Century [[w:United States Department of Veterans Affairs|V.A. as to building a 21st Century military. It means have zero-tolerance for veterans sleeping on our streets. It means bringing home all our P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s. And it means treating the graves of veterans like the hallowed ground it is, and banning protests near funerals.
But it also means, it also means something more. It means understanding that what Ryan and so many Americans fought and died for is not a place on a map, or a certain kind of people. What they sacrificed for, what they gave all for, is a larger idea: the idea that a nation can be governed by laws, not men. That we can be equal in the eyes of the law. That we can be free to say what we want, write what we want, and worship as we please.
That we can have the right to pursue our own dreams, with the obligations to help our fellow Americans pursue theirs. So, on this day, or all days, let’s memorialize our fallen heroes by honoring all who wear our country’s uniform. And by completing their work to make sure America is more secure, and our world is more free.
But let’s also do our part, service-member and civilian alike, to live up to the idea that so many of our fellow Americans have consecrated. The idea of America, that is the essence of patriotism, that is the lesson of this solemn day; and that is the task that lies ahead.
God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
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