This holiday weekend, you and I will join other Americans in saluting the soldiers of our country and honoring their memory. Initially, Memorial Day was enacted as a day to honor union soldiers following the Civil War. Now much more broadly celebrated, it is a day to honor those who have gone before us and in many cases also a day to pay homage to the living; the nearly 27 million veterans who are our family, our friends and our neighbors.
Memorial Day is more than picnics, reunions and leisure activities. It is a time to renew our patriotism and remind us that our nation was founded on the belief that this great republic and our common ideals are worth fighting for.
This is also a day to reassert our core values. Our liberties are worth fighting for. We will be free. We will be strong. We will still be the beacon to the world and the hope for those people whose freedoms are squelched.
This is the gift our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have left behind – the gift of peace and hope.
Thank you all for observing this day.
For information on Memorial Day events and parades in your county, contact your local county veterans service office, which can be found at https://va.iowa.gov/counties/index.html .
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