[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7482]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              MEMORIAL DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, this weekend throughout America, in 
cemeteries across the land, we will celebrate and memorialize those men 
and women who have served, who are serving, and those who have made the 
ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives to protect our Nation's 
freedoms embodied in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights that we 
hold most dear. While Memorial Day is a time when family and friends 
gather to be together, we know it is much more than that.
  This Memorial Day, we should all give thanks to the sacrifices that 
our men and women have made who have served in our Nation's military. 
We should say thanks to our family members, to our neighbors, to all 
those who have served, and we must always, always remember those who 
are no longer with us. We in our country, I believe, can never say 
thank you enough, for this great country we live in is made dear for 
all of those who have made those sacrifices over 238 years.
  So this weekend, as we gather across the land to be with our families 
and friends, let us pay thanks, let us take evidence of what it means 
to be an American, knowing that at the end of the day the bonds that we 
share in common as American citizens are much stronger than whatever 
differences we may have.
  God bless those who are serving and those that have served and those 
who are no longer with us. God bless our country.

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