[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 19749-19750]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           JIM WHAM'S 9TH ANNUAL MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE ADDRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN SHIMKUS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 28, 2004

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to submit the 9th Annual 
Memorial Day Service Address by Jim Wham of Centralia, IL. The address 
was given by Mr. Wham on May 31, 2004 at 10 a.m.
  As usual, readers will find an address filled with the hopes and 
challenges of our Nation's veterans. Jim Wham's love of his country is 
clear on each page and in each line of his address.
  We are grateful to him for his continued service to his country and 
for the inspiration he provides in reminding us that freedom is never 
free.

Ninth Annual Memorial Day Service, Brownstown VFW Post 9770, Brownstown 
                              Central Park

       The greatest crusade for freedom against tyranny in the 
     history of the World was commemorated last Saturday at the 
     dedication of the National World War II Memorial. It will 
     stand forever between the Washington and Lincoln monuments. 
     The costs of that crusade was monumental--400,000 Americans 
     were killed.
       Six days from now the 60th anniversary of the Normandy 
     Invasion will command world-wide attention--the greatest 
     invasion of all time had to be made and succeed if the free 
     world was to win the war.
       Today in Brownstown and in thousands of towns across the 
     country each Memorial Day is a day of memories. Each Memorial 
     Day is to honor and pay tribute to all Americans who fought 
     and died for their country in the cause of peace and freedom 
     in every war from the Revolution to the present day. Every 
     one of their deaths are special beyond compare.
       As Lincoln said at Gettysburg, it is for us, the living 
     ``to highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
     vain.''
       Each Memorial Day is also a day to look to the lessons of 
     the past to meet the dangers of the future. During my 
     lifetime, the Armed Forces of the United States have been 
     engaged throughout the world in eight wars: World War I, 
     World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, the Balkans, 
     Afghanistan and now Iraq.
       In all of these wars Americans fought against the forces of 
     tyranny and now against the new and vicious barbarians who 
     cut off the heads of living men and crash planes full of 
     innocent people into buildings full of innocent people.
       The fanatical terrorists, suicide bombers, and their 
     manipulators who are fueled by a hatred for every American. 
     Fanatical kamikazes with no concern for the miracle of life--
     even their own. Full of diabolical cunning--cut from the same 
     cloth as those monsters of history--spawned by the likes of 
     Hitler and his gang of criminal degenerates.
       Nine-eleven was just the beginning. Today we confront that 
     same brand of terrorist in Iraq. And the terrorists we 
     destroy in Iraq will never assault innocent people. A 
     terrorist killed in Iraq will kill no one over here or 
     anywhere else. But yet, we still hear those ominous words of 
     Plato: ``That only the dead have seen the end of war.''
       Is the human race to be forever victimized and dominated by 
     demented and depraved tyrants and terrorists? Is there no end 
     in sight? The forces of evil won't go away. They never have 
     and they never will. So, what are the forces of good to do 
     about it? Plenty--yet, many self-proclaimed good ones never 
     have learned that you cannot negotiate with mad dogs, 
     terrorists, or tyrants of any stripe. Never have they learned 
     that the good cannot wait for the bad to quit being bad. And 
     quitting the fight in mid-stream is the road to disaster. We 
     cannot quit--even if we wanted to.
       The United Nations never learned the lesson from the League 
     of Nations which sat idly by while Hitler overran Europe and 
     for 4 long years the whole world was engulfed in devastation 
     and bloodshed to a depth never before seen in the history of 
     the world.
       And now, 60 years later, a new cult of second-guessers of 
     our national fight against tyranny and terrorism has arisen--
     there are those who seek to sow doubt and discord among 
     Americans, and there are those who have never learned the 
     lesson that they do not really support the troops while 
     publicly condemning and disparaging their Commander. Such 
     only gives encouragement to the enemy. What happened to the 
     doctrine of World War II that politics stops at the water's 
     edge? The talkers and the shouters on national television 
     have ignored that vital doctrine. Every day they criticize 
     every decision of those who are trying their best to lead and 
     protect the Nation in an all-out war against tyrants and 
     terrorists that would destroy the American spirit, as well as 
     lives.
       If the Commander in Chief moves forward, the second-
     guessers say he should have stopped. If the Commander in 
     Chief stops, they say he should have moved forward--or maybe 
     even backward. What would these talkers do if the 
     responsibility to act was theirs? They speak from the 
     sanctuary of nonresponsibility.
       Legitimate differences by knowledgeable persons are to be 
     brought to the Commander in person and not by carping critics 
     who sit on the sidelines and jeer. Sometimes I wonder whose 
     side they are on.
       There was the same brand of criticism leveled at Abraham 
     Lincoln, the Commander in Chief in that war that preserved 
     the Nation and destroyed the malignancy of slavery. But 
     Lincoln, unshaken in the midst of that war, at Gettysburg 
     summed up the duty of Americans through all ages: ``. . . it 
     is for us the living . . . to be . . . dedicated to the great 
     task remaining before us . . .''
       The power of Lincoln is felt on every Memorial Day. And he 
     left us this as he concluded his second inaugural address to 
     the Nation at war a month before he was shot from behind by a 
     terrorist named Booth. And these few simple words are vital 
     to all Americans today: ``. . . let us strive on to finish 
     the work we've begun.''
       And that work is always at hand. Each generation must 
     fulfill the destiny of this land of liberty which is all 
     wound up in the cause of peace and freedom. Never can there 
     be peace and freedom without conquering the barbarians of the 
     world--the enemies of peace and freedom.
       I have with me today a highly significant painting and I 
     want to give it to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9770 of 
     Brownstown. I have done the same at other veteran 
     organization ceremonies. I do this because of the message it 
     conveys.
       It is a picture of a wall, as you can see. It is entitled 
     ``reflections'' and the reflections are of combat soldiers 
     from a wall of names--the names of all Vietnam veterans who 
     fell in battle. But, that picture tells the story of all 
     American veterans--not just the Vietnam veterans--it tells 
     the story of all American veterans who have made the supreme 
     sacrifice for their country.
       Soldiers who did all they could and now pass on to us the 
     unfinished work--the continuing responsibility to preserve 
     this country and its meaning to the world.
       Those soldiers of Vietnam in that picture symbolize the 
     passing of the torch--the torch of duty, honor, country--to 
     the living from the dead of every war.
       I hope you will hang this picture on the wall of the post 
     because it tells the story of the American veteran of all the 
     wars--veterans who never returned--veterans who pass the 
     torch to those of us who did return--the torch to carry on 
     the fight of good against evil--the fight for peace and 
     freedom against tyranny and terror. The torch that must be 
     kept lit and carried forward by every generation for as long 
     as the star-spangled banner shall wave.
       What a shameful epitaph any generation of Americans would 
     write about themselves if they let down these heroes who died 
     to preserve this land and its destiny.
       Nations have come and gone. Great empires and nations have 
     eventually ended up on the ash heap of history. They had 
     their day in the sun, and then almost imperceptibly, the 
     twilight creeps in, and before the generations realize it, 
     the sun is gone and that empire and nation has receded back 
     into the darkness of oblivion. This must never happen to the 
     United States of America.
       It would be a monumental tragedy for us in the grip of 
     multiple frustrations of today's world to tolerate for an 
     instant a retreat back from the confrontation by free men 
     against terror and tyranny. Such a lack of national resolve 
     would be the rankest of insults to every man who gave his 
     life so that the Nation might live in honor and achieve its 
     destiny of leading the world to freedom.
       Television land is saturated with apologizers and cynics. 
     But thank God for the inspired writers of the past and their 
     words of inspiration and appreciation for their native land 
     and the heroes we honor today.
       Here is a composite of their great words. We have heard 
     them before, but it is always good to hear them again:
       ``We sit here in this promised land, but t'was they that 
     won it sword in hand''
       ``By the rude bridge which arched the flood . . . they 
     fired the shot heard 'round the world . . .''
       ``They had a rendezvous with death at some disputed 
     barricade on some scarred slope of a battered hill at 
     midnight in some flaming town . . .''
       And now: ``On fame's eternal camping ground their silent 
     tents are spread and glory guards with silent round the 
     bivouac of the dead . . .''
       ``Oh wave, banner, wave above each hero's grave . . .''
       ``In Flanders Field where poppies grow . . .''
       And: ``From these honored dead we take increased devotion 
     to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of 
     devotion . . .''
       ``There's a graveyard near the White House where the 
     Unknown Soldier lies''
       And then it concludes with this famous line:

[[Page 19750]]

       ``I am the unknown soldier and maybe I died in vain, but if 
     I were alive and my country called, I'd do it all again.''--
     for my country
       ``My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty . . . long 
     may our land be bright with freedom's holy light. Protect us 
     by Thy might, great God, our King.''
       My friends, since I came home from World War II I have 
     spoken at many Memorial Day services like this one. And 
     always echoing from the sounding of taps among the crosses of 
     this Nation's heroes is the hope that when this Nation has 
     lived 1,000 years, it can be said of each generation that the 
     Stars and Stripes went forward forever and no discordant 
     bugle ever dared to sound retreat.
                                  ____

       Jim Wham is Senior Partner of the law firm of Wham & Wham 
     Lawyers, Centralia, Illinois, which firm has been in 
     existence 115 years and Jim Wham is in his 56th year of 
     active law practice in the Courts of Southern Illinois.
       Born in Centralia October 10, 1918, Veteran of World War 
     II, Major in Army Air Corps, served in England, Algeria, 
     Tunisia, Sicily and Italy. Lifetime member of the American 
     Legion. Member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Amvets and 
     the Forty and Eight.
       Member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Served as 
     Judge of the Illinois Court of Claims and as Assistant 
     Attorney General, State of Illinois. Received the 1998 
     Tradition of Excellence Award from the Illinois State Bar 
     Association.
       Elected to the 2004 Class of Laureates, Academy of Illinois 
     Lawyers. The Academy was founded in 1999 to recognize 
     Illinois lawyers who personify the greatness of the legal 
     profession.
       Adult Sunday school teacher for 45 years, United Methodist 
     Church, Centralia.
       Married to Phyllis Wham 61 years. Two daughters, seven 
     grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
                                  ____


    [From the ISBA Bar News and Illinois Courts Bulletin, Feb. 2004]

         James Wham Was Inspiration for Birth of Laureate Idea

                         (By Stephen Anderson)

       ``This honor you have given me today means more to me than 
     any I have ever received, because it comes from lawyers and 
     judges--and I never met one I didn't like!''
       Those words still ring in the ears of many ISBA members who 
     attended the Annual Meeting in St. Louis in 1998. They were 
     in the response of James B. Wham of Centralia as recipient of 
     the General Practice Section Tradition of Excellence Award.
       ``This is still the greatest profession of them all, 
     because it always deals with rights and duties of man,'' he 
     continued. That became the spark that kindled formation of an 
     Academy of Illinois Lawyers to recognize our state's icons of 
     lawyering.
       A member of the Academy's 2004 class of Laureates, Wham is 
     a partner in Wham & Wham. He graduated in 1946 from the 
     University of Illinois College of Law after service as an 
     Army Air Corps major in Europe and Africa during World War 
     II.
       His 58-year legal career includes having been a judge of 
     the Court of Claims for eight years, an assistant attorney 
     general for eight years, and a member of the Supreme Court 
     Committee on Jury Instructions.
       A lifelong Republican and frequent speaker at civic and 
     patriotic events, he ran for election in 1990 as the Jim Wham 
     Party for Congress and the Flag. He ran in the first 
     Appellate Court election after judicial reform in 1964 but 
     lost in the Lyndon Johnson landslide.
       Wham is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers 
     and the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the 
     International Society of Barristers.
       In his Laureate nomination letter, 4th Circuit Judge 
     Patrick J. Hitpas said that ``Jim Wham enjoys being a lawyer 
     more than anybody I know. He exemplifies everything good 
     about lawyers and the legal profession.''
       Wham's 1998 speech to the ISBA in St. Louis concluded, 
     ``The greatest epitaph of a lawyer is this: He never quit; he 
     just wore out and died, doing something for somebody else.'' 
     An active trial lawyer at age 85, he shows no signs of 
     wearing out.

                          ____________________