There have been, and there will be many ceremonies on these beaches, remembering the agony and the bravery, the horror and the heroism of the men who fought here. But to participate in the deduction of this monument is a personal honor for me. I was born in Maryland, one of the smallest states in our United States. My family has lived for 200 years in that state which contributed so many men to the 29th infantry division!! I share both the pride of their heroism and accomplishments and the sorrow of its losses endured here 25 years ago.
With the memory of these losses, on this beach, before this monument, there should be a sparcity of words. For today we are constantly besieged by words. We are assaulted by the most sophisticated communications system in the history of man, the printed word, the televised word, and the spoken word swirl about us so that sometimes it becomes difficult to sort out the meaningful from the trivia -- the thoughtful from the bombast.
A part of the anger for our age is because the prose of our promise has outstripped the substance of our performance! Poor men yearning for opportunities long denied are angry because often they hear only words. In our Declaration of Independence we say that all men are created equal. Most often we act as if we had never read or hear those words.
Last week on Memorial Day in our country and in France, it was said that young men like those who died here should not, must not die again in the uncontrolled violence called war. But they do die. Those are the contradictions. Their acts are what we should remember, when men everywhere cry out for deeds, not talk. Few of us are called to die for freedom. But all of us are called to work for freedom. Freedom is neither achieved nor maintained by law alone. Freedom is beyond the pronouncements of the rights of man.
The task of maintaining freedom, of nurturing it, and of sharing it, is a task for every man. Freedom is sustained in small acts and in large, in one’s family, in one’s business, on behalf of a neighbor, of a friend, or on behalf of men we never met, and others we will never know.
As we stand here with our private thoughts, it is not enough therefore to think of the past -- it is not enough to think of the tragedy and the glory which this beach represents. Each of us must decide in our own way to serve freedom now, again and again. Then resolve will meet rhetoric, and this monument will become not only a memorial to those who died, a symbol of past glories, but a standard by which to measure our own actions today. Thus we can and should ask ourselves now - Are we acting and living up to the ideals for which men died in Normandy? If we are then may God bless us and our country. If we are not let us decide to start. For the hour is late.
