Notable Speech - Freedom’s defenders

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 31st. We’re glad you’ve turned to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: honoring our nation’s fallen.

AUDIO: [SOUND OF WREATH LAYING]

President Joe Biden and the first lady attended the 154th National Memorial Day observance yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony began with the traditional wreath laying at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

REICHARD: A few minutes later the president addressed a small crowd gathered at the nearby Memorial Amphitheater. He honored the nation’s fallen, reflected on the life of his son, and emphasized the importance of protecting the freedom others died defending.

EICHER: Here is a portion of his Memorial Day speech. We have shortened it to fit the available time.

U.S. PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: They lie here in glory and honor — in quiet rows in Arlington, in cemeteries in Europe that I visited and many of you have, in graves across our country, in towns large and small — America’s beloved daughters and sons who dared all, risked all, and gave all to preserve and defend an idea unlike any other in human history: the idea of the United States of America.

And today, as a nation, we undertake a sacred ritual: to reflect and to remember. Because if we forget the lives that each of those silent markers represent — mothers, fathers, siblings, spouses, children — if we forget what they sacrificed, what they made, then we forget who we are. … Today we renew our sacred vow — it’s a simple vow: to remember.

Memorial Day is always a day where pain and pride are mixed together. We all know it, sitting here…folks, for those who have lost a loved one in the service of our country, if your loved one is missing or unaccounted for, I know the ceremonies reopen that black hole in the center of your chest that just pulls you in, suffocates you…

Days like this bring back, before your eyes, their smile and their laugh. And the last conversation you had, each of you know it.

The hurt can be overwhelming. But for so many of you, as is with Jill and me, the hurt is wrapped around the knowledge that your loved one was part of something bigger — bigger than any of us. They chose a life of purpose…

They had a mission. And above all, they believed in duty; they believed in honor; they believed in their country. And still today, we are free because they were brave. We live by the light of the flame of liberty that they kept burning. And so a part of them is still with us no matter how long ago we lost them.

And as hard as it is for many to believe, especially those whose loss is still raw, I promise you the day will come when the memory of your loved one, your patriot, will bring a smile to your lip before it brings a tear to your eye. That’s when you know you’re going to make it.

Today, American service members stand watch around the world, and, as many of you know, often at great personal risk. And this Memorial Day, we know the memory is still painful of all the fallen who lost their lives during the last two decades in combat. Each of them leaving behind a family, a community. Hearts broken by their absence, and lives that will never be the same.

We see in the hundreds of graves here in Section 60, at Arlington, a reminder that there’s nothing low-risk or low-cost about war for the women and men who fight it.

And so, to every Gold Star family, to every survivor and family member and caregiver: this grateful nation owes you as well as that person you lost. And we can never repay the sacrifice, but we will never stop trying. We’ll never fail in our duty to remember: With their lives, they bought our freedom.

And so, with our lives, we must always live up to their example — putting service before self; caring for our neighbors as ourselves; working fervently to bring our union just that much closer to fulfilling the founding creed, as the Secretary said, that all men and women are created equal…

On Friday, I spoke at the graduation and commissioning of — ceremony of the U.S. Naval Academy, looking out at those young men and women — newly commissioned officers — embarking on a life of service.

They hold before them the example of the heroes who have gone before them — many of your family members — heroes who have answered duty’s call at Lexington and Concord, Antietam and Gettysburg, Belleau Woods and the Battle of the Bulge, in Korea and Vietnam and Afghanistan, Iraq, and so many other places around the world...

Every generation has to defeat democracy’s mortal foes. And into every generation, heroes are born, willing to shed their blood for that which they and we hold dear. Ladies and gentlemen, today we remember and we reaffirm: Freedom is worth the sacrifice. Democracy is not perfect…But it’s worth fighting for; if necessary, worth dying for…

We must never betray the lives laid down to make our nation a beacon to the world — a citadel of liberty and justice for everyone. This is the mission of our time. Our memorial to them must not be just a day when we pause and pray, it must be a daily commitment to act, to come together, to be worthy of the price that was paid.

May God bring comfort to all those who mourn. May God bless our Gold Star families and survivors. And please, God, protect our troops. God bless America and all of you. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

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