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Trump’s Memorial Day Proclamation: Just The Start Of What Citizens Should Do

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Memorial Day – a day where all American citizens honor and remember those who died while in service to this republic, in defense of freedom.  In a proclamation setting May 28, 2018, as Memorial Day, President Donald Trump wrote, “We remain duty bound to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and to remember them with thankfulness and unwavering pride.”  Trump requested all Americans “‘to unite in prayer for lasting peace in our troubled world so that future generations will enjoy the blessings of liberty and independence.'”  Trump’s full proclamation follows.

On Memorial Day, we pause in solemn gratitude to pay tribute to the brave patriots who laid down their lives defending peace and freedom while in military service to our great Nation. We set aside this day to honor their sacrifice and to remind all Americans of the tremendous price of our precious liberty.

Throughout the history of our Republic, courageous Americans have purchased our cherished freedom with their lives. Our 151 national cemeteries serve as the final resting place for millions of people, including veterans from every war and conflict, many of whom died while serving our country. We remain duty bound to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and to remember them with thankfulness and unwavering pride. The fallen — our treasured loved ones, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens — deserve nothing less from a grateful Nation.

We must safeguard the legacies of our service members so that our children and our grandchildren will understand the sacrifices of our Armed Forces. As a part of this effort, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to keep the memories of our fallen heroes from ever fading away. The National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program challenges our youth, from elementary school through college, to research and share the stories and sacrifice of their hometown veterans, who are forever honored at VA National, State, and tribal veterans cemeteries. To further ensure that our veterans’ legacies are remembered and celebrated, this program is developing an online memorialization platform that will amplify the voices of families, survivors, and Gold Star parents and spouses as they honor our beloved veterans and fallen service members.

Today, and every day, we revere those who have died in noble service to our country. I call upon all Americans to remember the selfless service members who have been laid to rest in flag-draped coffins and their families who have suffered the greatest loss. The sacrifices of our hallowed dead demand our Nation’s highest honor and deepest gratitude. On this day, let us also unite in prayer for lasting peace in our troubled world so that future generations will enjoy the blessings of liberty and independence.

In honor and recognition of all of our fallen heroes, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 11, 1950, as amended (36 U.S.C. 116), has requested the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer. The Congress, by Public Law 106-579, has also designated 3:00 p.m. local time on that day as a time for all Americans to observe, in their own way, the National Moment of Remembrance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 28, 2018, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time when people might unite in prayer.

I further ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day.

I also request the Governors of the United States and its Territories, and the appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct the flag be flown at half-staff until noon on this Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control. I also request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.

DONALD J. TRUMP

In contemplating the history of this republic, all the wars where our military service members sacrificed their lives to defend our liberties and freedoms, is it truly enough that we only remember their sacrifice, honor these brave men and women with ceremony, pray for their families, loved ones, friends, and other survivors, and thank them for the sacrifices made on behalf of every American generation and those to come?  As Americans celebrate Memorial Day, not only as a day to honor fallen veterans, but as the “first day of summer”, a day off from work and a reason to gather with family to barbeque, citizens of the republic should stop, engage in a great pause, to contemplate how best we can honor those who sacrificed all to pay for our liberties and freedoms.  One day to remember these service members and their families is a paltry token in comparison to what has been bestowed upon us because of their sacrifice.

When one believes in God and accepts Jesus Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior, one’s life is transformed.  Relieved of the burden of sin, one, by God’s grace, strives to live their life according to God’s laws and commandments.  We are never free from sin;  however, we move forward in the word of our Lord to consciously refrain from sin.  We ask for His protection, His guidance to keep us from evil, His forgiveness for our transgressions daily and listen as He speaks to us.  We don’t just remember what God did for us in sending His only Son to bear the burden of our sin.  We try to live by God’s word every day.

Shouldn’t it be the same when honoring those who sacrificed all in defense of the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today?  It was God who bestowed upon man all individual unalienable rights, which we recognize as our freedoms and liberties today.  As a republic, founded by men through Divine Providence, we, as citizens, enjoy those freedom and liberties under a document created solely for a moral and religious people.  Shouldn’t we live to preserve what these men and women courageously sacrificed to protect by living our lives in support of those freedoms and liberties – individual unalienable rights given to us by God?

Many already know that God did not create a certain sect of men to have dominion over other men.  Men were created equal to one another.  Men instituted government, not to have dominion over other men;  but to protect each man’s individual unalienable rights, which include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  When government ceases to govern in this fashion and becomes a dominating force over men or a group of men exert dominion over those in government to place others in a state of subservience or enslavement, and men refuse to stand and fight for their freedoms and liberties against this type of government, the sacrifice of those who stood courageously, sacrificing all to preserve freedom and liberty, are cheapened.  When we reduce their sacrifice to one day of remembrance, instead of living daily in celebration of freedom and living to preserve what they sacrificed to give us, we are doing a terrible disservice to them and their families.

When we do not reject ideologies against freedom and liberty, we deny their sacrifice.  When we clamor for government to exert more control over our lives, we besmirch their name.  When we hasten to cast blame upon others instead of accepting responsibility for ourselves, we tar their memory.  When we do not reject evil, immoral, Godlessness, we cast remorse upon their soul and condemn our own.  When we call for the infringement of rights of all our citizens for a “greater good”, we reject God.

We need to do more than remember, share stories, organize and attend parades, honor their families and create plaques.  As American citizens, we need to preserve what these great men and women fought and died to keep.

On this Memorial Day, we should do more than just symbolically remember and honor our fallen heroes;  we should commit to living in remembrance of those who made the greatest sacrifice, not by symbolic gesture, but through actions reflecting our gratefulness.  And, we should do this every single day for the rest of our lives, teaching future generations the same, and work, each according to his talents, to preserve what God bestowed upon us and our heroes died to save.  Anything less is just not good enough, nor what they deserve.  While we can never repay the debt we owe them, we can demonstrate their sacrifice was not in vain.

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost. Article by Suzanne Hamner.


The Washington Standard

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