On our most important holiday: a Memorial Day message from Chairman Buyer

Memorial Day is our most important national holiday.

In 1971, Congress established what began shortly after the Civil War as Decoration Day, a day when flowers were placed on the grave of fallen soldiers of both sides of America’s bloodiest conflict, as a day to remember those who made the fullest measure of sacrifice in all our conflicts.

Some may say the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving or Veterans Day are more important. But I say Memorial Day because without the bravery shown by those who manned the lines from Concord Bridge to Gettysburg and San Juan Hill, from Belleau Wood, Normandy and Guadalcanal to the Chosin Reservoir, Hue and Fallujah, the days of peace and liberty would not exist.

Memorial Day is for those who did not come home with their comrades-in-arms. To the living spirit of those men and women, I say that your courage is inspirational. You were selfless when you put on the nation’s uniform. You did not seek to place a sense of loss on the ones who loved you with all their hearts, but you knew there was a greater loss if you did not do your duty. You did not seek to miss the pleasure of seeing your grandchildren growing into adulthood but you are now forever young, memorialized in our hearts and minds.

America owes you an eternal place in the national consciousness. We owe you the determination to see a duty through despite the dangers. We owe you our respect and appreciation by accepting the duty of eternal vigilance to safeguard the freedoms you secured. We owe you in ways that can never be repaid.

As time passes, it is appropriate that honoring your life gradually replaces mourning your death. For it is your life that gives meaning to your sacrifice. Your life is reflected in the memories of unborn generations to come. Truly, it is through who you were and how you lived that we draw hope for the future of our nation.

Steve Buyer
Chairman
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives