[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 99 (Thursday, June 28, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INDEPENDENCE DAY IN HONOR OF OUR ARMED FORCES AND THEIR FAMILIES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JEAN SCHMIDT

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2012

  Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, in honor and in remembrance of all of our 
Armed Forces and their families on this Independence Day, who are 
fighting and have fallen, and are recovering from the scars of war. I 
ask that this poem penned by Albert Caswell be placed in the Record.

                            Independence Day

     Independence . . .
     Remembering our Forefathers Declaration of Independence, 
           they!
     Remember to so kneel and pray!
     For all of those,
     and they . . . who now so fight so far away!
     And what they so give,
     so gave!
     As we so awake . . .
     All in the happiness and that glory of this day!
     That which freedom does so all of us so bathe!
     All on this holiday!
     Our Nation's Birthday!
     As that old Red, White and Blue so waves!
     All in our Independence that they so give,
     that they so gave!
     For all of those magnificents,
     who now so lie in such cold dark quiet graves!
     Whose families great pain shall not ever so wave!
     ``Oh say can you see'' on this day!
     ``By the dawn's early light'',
     all of those soft cold quiet graves!
     As you so wipe your tears away!
     This Independence Day!
     Remember all of those and they,
     who are without their families, gone!
     And all of those who come home from war,
     without arms and legs who must now so courageously live on!
     To teach us where courage is born!
     And all of those with the unseen scars of war,
     that which now so form!
     All over there,
     where the battle now so rages on!
     ``With the bombs bursting in air''. . .
     ``And the rockets red glare!''
     Which gives proof through the night,
     of that courage they wear!
     Who all for us so fight,
     and so die over there!
     As this Independence Day,
     as you hold your families oh so very close!
     And all of those picnics and family gatherings you so host!
     And so watch those fire works, explode!
     Remember the grave cost and toll of all of those living so 
           close!
     And selfless sacrifice that which they fine hearts so host!
     All for us who so pay the most!
     God Bless Them All!
     This Independence Day,
     remember what they give and gave!
     Let us we pray!
     Amen!

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