[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        MEMORIAL DAY OBSERVANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. C.W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2006

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with my 
colleagues in the House the text of a Memorial Day speech delivered by 
the Mayor of Largo, Florida, Mrs. Patricia Gerard.
  Like so many of my colleagues in the House, I was honored to attend 
numerous Memorial Day services in my Congressional District to pay 
tribute to those who have sacrificed greatly in defense of our great 
Nation. It is always humbling to join with veterans young and old and 
to share moments of remembrance with the families that survive them. 
Those that we honored on Memorial Day have secured our freedom and our 
safety, and this point could not have been more clearly made than by 
Mayor Gerard's comments and her reference to the words of Mr. Charles 
M. Province.
  I submit to you the text of Mayor Gerard's Memorial Day remarks so 
that we may all reflect on the debt we owe to our men and women in 
uniform.

       Memorial Day is the time for Americans to reconnect with 
     their history and core values by honoring those who gave 
     their lives for the ideals we cherish.
       More than a million American service members have died in 
     the wars and conflicts this nation fought since the first 
     colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 to fight for 
     independence. Each person who died during those conflicts was 
     a loved one cherished by family and friends. Each was a loss 
     to the community and the nation.
       We in this country owe a great debt of gratitude to those 
     who sacrificed their lives so that we could live free. We can 
     start to pay that debt by not forgetting, by remembering what 
     they did and what they stood for.
       In the words of Charles M. Province:

     It is the Soldier, not the reporter,
     Who has given us freedom of the press.
       It is the Soldier, not the poet,
     Who has given us freedom of speech.
       It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer,
     Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
       It is the Soldier, not the lawyer,
     Who has given us the right to a fair trial; And I would say:
     And it is the Soldier--who leaves his or her family and goes 
           off to war,
     Who allows the protester to speak out against that war.

       Far too often, the nation as a whole takes for granted the 
     freedoms all Americans enjoy. Those freedoms were paid for 
     with the lives of others few of us actually knew. That's why 
     they are all collectively remembered on one special day.
       Please join me as we all remember those men and women who 
     have made our way of life possible.

                          ____________________