Memorial Day 2021 - we reinforce the covenant between America and the men and women who protect and defend
Dear Colleagues,
On Monday, May 31, 2021, we will celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial Day is dedicated to those who fell in defense of the core ideals, beliefs, and values we hold sacred as a nation. The roots of Memorial Day reach back to the 1860s, when Americans began honoring Civil War dead by placing flowers that abound during the spring on their graves. A simple gesture, this way to memorialize those who had fallen in battle quickly spread across our nation. The first official recognition of “Decoration Day,” as it was then called, was in 1868. On May 30th of that year, at the recently established Arlington National Cemetery, just south of the Potomac River, more than 5,000 listened to speeches, recited prayers, and sang hymns as they walked through the cemetery, casting flowers on more than 20,000 graves of Civil War Soldiers. But speaking in honor of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country has never been an easy or light-hearted task—especially at ceremonies that may include the families and friends of the fallen we honor.
This is not a new challenge. Almost 158 years ago, President Lincoln struggled with the same task. He said of those who gave “the last full measure of devotion” at Gettysburg that “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” Lincoln’s eloquence is impossible to improve upon. There is nothing that can be said that can surpass the noble sacrifices, dedication, and consecration of those who gave all to uphold our democratic ideals, who gave their lives in war so that following generations could live in peace.
America has been blessed as no other country in the history of the world. The sacrifices of our armed forces have given us the security and freedom in which to grow and flourish as a nation—in law, human rights, economics, science and technology, and the arts. Our way of life is a beacon of hope and freedom to others in distant lands. It has drawn millions to our shores—millions who went on to build the nation and to make their own sacrifices in succeeding generations. Over nearly two and a half centuries, in defining moments of both calm and crisis, Americans in uniform have realized our most fervent hopes, and vanquished our darkest fears, through their noble actions. In America’s expansion from thirteen struggling colonies to a mighty nation and world leader, challenge and conflict have been enduring companions.
After the first volley of fire of the 1775 battlefield of Lexington, Massachusetts, where the shots heard round the world rang out, eight Minutemen lay dead—the first Americans sacrificed for the principle of freedom, but certainly not the last. The 19th century saw Americans fight and die in the War of 1812, the Indian Wars, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War. The 20th century found Americans in the trenches of World War I, in Europe and the Pacific on the battlefields of World War II, in the snows and mountains of Korea, the jungles of Vietnam, on the sands of the Persian Gulf, and in Kosovo. And for almost 20 years now, our troops have been fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
This Monday, we remember those of all generations who did not make it home to their families. Whether they died in a named battle or at a host of other crossroads of conflict marked only by grid coordinates or the elevation of a hill on a map, American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines stood fast. Their sacrifices advanced our founding principles, ideals, beliefs, and values as a nation. They cherished liberty and loved freedom enough to lay down their lives to preserve our way of life.
Time and again, young Americans secured a legacy of peace and freedom for us and for future generations. They provided the opportunity for both peace and privilege—even the privilege to remember as we do this weekend to honor them all. We at Kansas City VA Medical Center are privileged to honor the dead by serving the living. Every day, the work we do fulfills President Lincoln’s call to serve those who “have borne the battle,” their families, caregivers, and survivors.
We take great pride in providing health care, benefits, and services at our hospitals, outpatient clinics, Vet Centers, Regional Offices, and National Cemeteries. It is both a great privilege and a great responsibility to serve them as well as they served all of us. They did not fail us. We will not fail them. We are proud to add our voices to the chorus of those honoring and celebrating all the Americans who have paid the ultimate price to secure the blessings of liberty for our nation and for friends and allies around the world.
So Monday is a day for remembrance, gratitude, and exhortation. By participating in Memorial Day remembrances, and by our advocacy for Veterans and Servicemembers, we reinforce the covenant between America and the men and women who protect and defend her.
It is, in large part, the deeds of those we honor today, and the deeds of all American Veterans, that bind us to our noble past, strengthen us in the difficult present, and inspire us to meet future challenges.
Please join me in a moment of personal reflection for the American lives cut short for causes more important to them than life itself—liberty, justice, and peace.
May God bless our honored dead, those currently serving our country in uniform, and all our nation’s Veterans.
DAVID ISAACKS, FACHE