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| Presidio San Francisco, CA |
UPDATED 05/27/2024 VA National Cemeteries Take time to visit one sometime during the year-many hold ceremonies on Memorial Day each year, too.
UPDATED 05/30/2022 WH, A Proclamation: Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2022
UPDATED 05/30/2023 WH, A Proclamation: Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2023
UPDATED 05/30/2022 WH, A Proclamation: Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2022
...if that is too long ago for you how about life in the trenches of the Ukraine War...wonder if the the difference between the map of Europe on the Eve of WW I versus today's map has any explanatory power?
UPDATED 05/30/2021 WH, A Proclamation: Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2021
UPDATED 05/22/2020 Memorial Day Joint Letter from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer to the White House (pdf)
UPDATED 05/28/2019 Women in Military Service for America Memorial and SOCEUR, Epinal American Cemetery - Memorial Day Ceremony and CBSNews, Eisenhower Recalls Sacrifices of D-Day (1964) and History, Memorial Day
UPDATED 09/01/2018 WP, Why Bush and Obama’s Eulogies of John McCain Were Historic and Atlantic, John McCain’s Final Letter to America and NYT, Capturing How John McCain Was Honored Across the Country
"...We weaken our greatness … when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down; when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been..."--Some Final Words of John S. McCain III--
As we remember those who have fought, killed, and died protecting our personal and global freedoms let us also remember that warring, if unavoidably necessary to keep or restore these freedoms, is a joint activity, which requires alliances among nations. These alliances3 are more than a balanced current account or strict adherence to an accounting ledger.
UPDATED 05/31/2016 WH, President Obama delivers remarks at Arlington National Cemetery and WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2016 and WH, President Obama Participates in a Wreath Laying Ceremony Hiroshima, Japan and U.S. Navy, Ceremonial Guard Poem Memorial Day 2016 and WH, President's Weekly Address: Remembering Our Fallen Heroes
Mr. President, when will our future Presidents routinely proclaim that it has taken us many decades2 of destruction and devastation, but we have finally learned that "bending nature to our will" is foolish folly full of fantasy?
UPDATED 05/22/2015 WH, Presidential Proclamation -Prayer [Plan]1 for Peace, Memorial Day, 2015 and Library Congress, The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak by Archibald MacLeish
Prayer [Plan?] for Peace, Memorial Day 2014 and VOA, Obama Makes Surprise Visit to Afghanistan
Let's also remember the enthusiasm, which launched our 13 year war parade and not tolerate any asymmetry between that enthusiasm and the enthusiasm, which our appropriators fund the extraordinarily costly cleanup of war's carnage.
DoD, Obama Vows Vets Will Get Care They Earned; DoD, Suicide Prevention and Awareness; VA, Mental Health; WP, To curb military suicides, should funds go for sit-ups or psychologists? (fund both, no need to debate physical verses psyche or how many angels dance on the head of a pin!)
UPDATED 05/26/2013 WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2013
Mr. President, a paradigm that pins ribbons; passes out medals; publishes Presidential Proclamations and pronouncements; prays for peace; pursues policies that promote, prepares for and perpetuate war; or periodically pokes American flags into the graves of our soldiers is unlikely to produce a persistent peace—so, let's change the paradigm!
WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2012
-----notes-----
1. Our nation and national leadership must continuously plan for peace in lieu of telling our citizens to pray for peace.
2. UPDATED 05/28/2016 Continuous discussions [e.g. SA, Steven Pinker, John Gray and the End of War, SA, Obama and Putin to Seek End of War (the form of discussions are irrelevant—humor, jokes or intellectual treatise) and Chomsky & Krauss: An Origins Project Dialogue (OFFICIAL) - (Part 1/2)] on the end of warring will increase theprobability chance that our species will slowly stumble upon a definition, its cause, and profound implications.
3. Our 115th United States Congress should adopt a concurrent resolution expressing its support for the NATO alliance and North Atlantic Treaty, Article 5.
It is difficult to understand why the current executive branch so often and blithely compliments our nation's opponents and criticizes its proponents?
UPDATED 05/22/2020 Memorial Day Joint Letter from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer to the White House (pdf)
"...This weekend, we will observe Memorial Day an occasion of great importance as we honor the men and women who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We will always carry their memory in our hearts. We reserve Monday to give special remembrance to them..."
UPDATED 05/28/2019 Women in Military Service for America Memorial and SOCEUR, Epinal American Cemetery - Memorial Day Ceremony and CBSNews, Eisenhower Recalls Sacrifices of D-Day (1964) and History, Memorial Day
UPDATED 09/01/2018 WP, Why Bush and Obama’s Eulogies of John McCain Were Historic and Atlantic, John McCain’s Final Letter to America and NYT, Capturing How John McCain Was Honored Across the Country
"...We weaken our greatness … when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down; when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been..."--Some Final Words of John S. McCain III--
In Memoriam
This Man Served His Nation, Honorably
McCain's Eternal Journey Embarkation Point
United States Naval Academy Cemetery
C-SPAN, Former President Barack Obama Tribute To Senator John McCain
UPDATED 05/27/2018 LOC, Burial of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Va.; President Harding Standing Beside Casket, Nov. 11, 1921
McCain's Eternal Journey Embarkation Point
United States Naval Academy Cemetery
"...Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representative of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and is authorized to bestow with appropriate ceremonies, military and civil, the congressional medal of honor and the distinguished service cross upon the unknown unidentified American to be buried in the Memorial Amphitheater of the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia, on November 11, 1921 .Approved, August 24, 1921..." (Library of Congress, Public Resolution 67)UPDATED 05/27/2017 Arlington National Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
AVC, The 2017 National Memorial Day Parade
As we remember those who have fought, killed, and died protecting our personal and global freedoms let us also remember that warring, if unavoidably necessary to keep or restore these freedoms, is a joint activity, which requires alliances among nations. These alliances3 are more than a balanced current account or strict adherence to an accounting ledger.
UPDATED 05/31/2016 WH, President Obama delivers remarks at Arlington National Cemetery and WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2016 and WH, President Obama Participates in a Wreath Laying Ceremony Hiroshima, Japan and U.S. Navy, Ceremonial Guard Poem Memorial Day 2016 and WH, President's Weekly Address: Remembering Our Fallen Heroes
Mr. President, when will our future Presidents routinely proclaim that it has taken us many decades2 of destruction and devastation, but we have finally learned that "bending nature to our will" is foolish folly full of fantasy?
UPDATED 05/22/2015 WH, Presidential Proclamation -
Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them?UPDATED 05/25/2014 WH, Presidential Proclamation --
They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts.
They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us.
They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done.
They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave.
They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them.
They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say: it is you who must say this.
They say, We leave you our deaths: give them their meaning: give them an end to the war and a true peace: give them a victory that ends the war and a peace afterwards: give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died. Remember us.
--Archibald MacLeish--
Let's also remember the enthusiasm, which launched our 13 year war parade and not tolerate any asymmetry between that enthusiasm and the enthusiasm, which our appropriators fund the extraordinarily costly cleanup of war's carnage.
DoD, Obama Vows Vets Will Get Care They Earned; DoD, Suicide Prevention and Awareness; VA, Mental Health; WP, To curb military suicides, should funds go for sit-ups or psychologists? (fund both, no need to debate physical verses psyche or how many angels dance on the head of a pin!)
UPDATED 05/26/2013 WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2013
Mr. President, a paradigm that pins ribbons; passes out medals; publishes Presidential Proclamations and pronouncements; prays for peace; pursues policies that promote, prepares for and perpetuate war; or periodically pokes American flags into the graves of our soldiers is unlikely to produce a persistent peace—so, let's change the paradigm!
WH, Presidential Proclamation -- Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2012
-----notes-----
1. Our nation and national leadership must continuously plan for peace in lieu of telling our citizens to pray for peace.
2. UPDATED 05/28/2016 Continuous discussions [e.g. SA, Steven Pinker, John Gray and the End of War, SA, Obama and Putin to Seek End of War (the form of discussions are irrelevant—humor, jokes or intellectual treatise) and Chomsky & Krauss: An Origins Project Dialogue (OFFICIAL) - (Part 1/2)] on the end of warring will increase the
3. Our 115th United States Congress should adopt a concurrent resolution expressing its support for the NATO alliance and North Atlantic Treaty, Article 5.
It is difficult to understand why the current executive branch so often and blithely compliments our nation's opponents and criticizes its proponents?
Originally Published May 26, 2012; Last Updated May 24, 2020; Last Republished May 24, 2020:
