PRESIDENT BUSH#41 SPEECH, 2008

I FOUND A SPEECH FROM PRESIDENT BUSH FROM 2008.....

41st President of the United States, given at Kennebunkport’s Memorial Day Parader. (Note: The little girl holding Mrs. Bush’s hand is General Scowcroft’s granddaughter Meaghan.)

2008:

As we gather in the heart of this wonderful community, and call to mind the countless sacrifices that a long line of American patriots have so selflessly made that we might live in freedom, my message to each of you today relates not to the fallen – to those who have given our Nation their last full measure of devotion.

As President Lincoln rightly observed at Gettysburg, there is little that those of us who remain can say to add to the glory and honor that the valor of the fallen has rightly earned them.

Rather, I have come here today to encourage the rest of us – the living, the able-bodied – to do everything we can to be worthy of such courage and sacrifice. To give Memorial Day the significance it deserves, it seems to me that this day should involve more than the act of remembering – as vitally important as that surely is.

If we were to encounter the patriots of Bunker Hill or the Battle of New Orleans, what could we tell them we do to help sustain the grand experiment in self-governance they sacrificed so much to set in motion? Could each of us say, for example, that we take the time to vote?

If we were to encounter the dead from Antietam – the bloodiest battle not only of the Civil War, but in all of American history – could we say that we have fully endeavored to treat every American born under our Declaration with equality and fairness?

If we were to talk today to those who served in World Wars I and II, or Korea, or Vietnam – or anywhere before or since – could we say that we have tried to give back to our own community as active citizens, as volunteers?

Ladies and gentlemen, the men and women we honor today – those who have served, those who have fallen – have done their part. And yet there is so much that each of us can do in our own way, in our own lives, to keep our Nation free, and strong.

So I join you today in honoring all who wear our Nation’s uniform, particularly at this time of war. I join you in honoring our military families, who bear a burden every bit as heavy as the soldier’s pack.

Most of all, I join you in asking the continued blessings, and mercy, of a loving God for our Nation, and all who take her noble cause upon their shoulders – be they on the front lines, or here on the home front.

So thank you once again for your invitation, enjoy what’s left of your holiday weekend, and may God bless our United States.