[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           MEMORIAL DAY 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ALLEN BOYD

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2000

  Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, every year on Memorial Day, small replicas of 
our Star-Spangled Banner appear in cemeteries across our Nation. They 
mark the final resting places of those who gave their lives to defend 
the helpless, to let democracy flower around the world, and to defend 
the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as Americans.
  These honored dead have not died in vain, as Abraham Lincoln solemnly 
pledged during the most divisive, soul-rending war this nation had yet 
faced. We have a long, proud history of service and sacrifice given by 
those men and women who quit the safety of everyday life and friends 
``to hazard all in freedom's fight.'' Today, we have such men and women 
deployed around the world, and we hold them and their families in our 
hearts and prayers.
  That oath to defend the Constitution has been sworn by every soldier, 
sailor, flyer, and Marine, living and dead. On Memorial Day, we recall 
with bittersweet fondness, those who gave everything to preserve the 
security and liberty of those they loved and those they never knew. 
What wonderful people we have lost! What gifts might they have given 
the world, had war not shortened their lives! And yet they gave the 
dearest gifts they had, and now they lie beneath small flags of red, 
white and blue in grassy fields all around us.
  We have honored their graves and their lives on Memorial Day since 
the end of our own Civil War. In 1866, spontaneous rites of remembrance 
were held in Carbondale, IL, in Columbus, MS, and Waterloo, NY. The 
families of the men killed in that war came together to place flowers 
by their gravestones. The veterans joined this practice, honoring their 
fallen comrades with their own recollections of courage and devotion on 
stricken fields. Ever since then, veterans and their families have led 
the observance of Memorial Day.
  There have been times, during and right after wars, when most 
Americans have known some of these honored dead. Those who defend this 
country, after all, are men and women from every town and every walk of 
life. They are as ordinary as the earth they lie beneath, and more 
precious than diamonds.
  But in prolonged times of peace, children are born and grow up never 
knowing anybody who fell in war. While peace is an immeasurable 
blessing, not to have known any of these honored dead is a loss. Some 
feel it in never knowing a father or other relative lost in combat. 
Others have no connection beyond gratitude.
  Memorial Day brings that connection to our consciousness. On this day 
we are all aware of the service so many have given this Nation, and of 
what risk those who defend this nation share. This is a day, I would 
hope only one of many, on which the living remember and salute those 
who served our Nation in uniform and now lie at eternal rest.
  On this Memorial Day, I would like to remember two fallen heroes from 
the Second Congressional District of Florida, which I have the distinct 
honor of representing in the House of Representatives. Air Force Master 
Sgt. Sherry Lynn Olds, of Panama City and Marine Sgt. Jesse N. 
Aliganga, of Tallahassee, made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of 
their country. These soldiers were two of 12 Americans that gave their 
lives in the August 7th, 1998, terrorist bombing of the United States 
Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. On this day, we honor them and the many 
others that have gone before them, and the contributions all of them 
have made for us.
  Service of this country in uniform has been, since the beginning, one 
of the greatest sources of unity and equality, in our national life. 
More than half a century ago, President Franklin Roosevelt reminded the 
American people that, ``Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as 
we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.'' I hope on 
this Memorial Day 2000, we as a nation, and each of us as individuals, 
will take to heart President Roosevelt's reminder that it is the sacred 
duty and great privilege of the living to honor and remember those who 
have died to protect the American ideals of freedom, democracy, and 
liberty. The men and women who have died in service to America and to 
all of us deserve no less.

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