“Few of us are called to die for freedom. But all of us are called to work for freedom. [...] Each of us must decide to serve freedom, again and again, to serve our follow men in peace as well as war. Then our resolve will match our relations. Then this truly will become a day of memorial, for those who lie beneath these crosses and beneath these stars—for all of us will be one with them—in body, in heart, in soul.”
Our Quote of the Week is a reflection on how we can all honor those who have died in service to our country. We offer these words as we prepare to observe Memorial Day in the United States.
Sargent Shriver spoke these words in 1969 in his Remarks at Memorial Day Ceremonies at Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial. He was serving as US Ambassador to France at the time. As a veteran of World War II and a combatant in the bloody Guadalcanal campaign, he had had first-hand experience with the brutality of war, a fact that makes his reflections about military service all the more poignant.
Shriver’s words are aimed at spurring all of us into action. He says:
“Can we repay [these fallen soldiers] for their sacrifice? I think not. Can we attempt to repay them? I think we should. While we cannot repay the supreme debt we owe them, I think we are obliged, nevertheless, to attempt some payment. For what they ask us is little compared to what they have given. First of all they ask us to remember. They ask us to reject cynicism, to reject tyranny, to reject enslavement of man’s spirit as well as his body, wherever and whenever it occurs. For if we do these things, then their sacrifice will not have gone for nothing.
And they ask us one thing more. They ask us to substitute action for talk— to do today what they did yesterday—that is, to put our bodies and our minds and our hearts into the fight for freedom—not just our mouths.”
How do we put ourselves into the “fight for freedom,” according to Sargent Shriver? We do so by upholding human rights and equality, and by ensuring and end to all war. He stresses:
“In our own declaration of independence, it is written that all men are created equal. But we often act as if men were not created equal. On Memorial Day at home in the USA and in places like this around the world it will be said that young men of today should not, must not, die again. Die—despite our efforts, our talk. But they do. [...] Freedom is neither achieved nor mentioned by law alone. Freedom is beyond the pronouncements of the rights of man. The task of maintaining it, of nurturing it and sharing it is a task of every man. It is sustained in small acts and in large, in one’s family, in one’s baseness, on behalf of a neighbor, or of a friend, or on behalf of men we never met and will never know.”
Each of us has the power to perform “small acts and large” to maintain freedom. From making peace with family members to speaking out in opposition to policies that rob our most vulnerable neighbors of valuable government services, we all have the power to make the world a place that is more free and more peaceful. May this Memorial Day prompt us to pause and reflect how we each can contribute, as individuals and as a society, to greater freedom and enduring peace for all of us.
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