|
Thank you, Colonel Toro, Father Juniot, Commander Lamburth, Colonel Rhea, Captain Telfer, Mr. Johonson, the U.S. Marine Security Guard Detachment, distinguished guests and friends.
I especially want to thank the American Legion Post 2 for reading President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address -- because now my remarks have to follow one of the greatest and most celebrated speeches in American history.
I am honored today to see so many members of not just the U.S. community here in Mexico City, but those who have come from other Diplomatic Missions and from Mexico.
In honoring the proud Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen lost throughout the history of the United States, we demonstrate our commitment to the democratic ideals they fought and died to preserve.
So how do we commemorate those who have served and gone before us and have sacrificed so much? And out of that sacrifice, how do we attach meaning and substance to what we do, now, in service to our country and those democratic ideals?
First, I think, we must remember those who have gone before us in peace and in conflict, at home and abroad, serving in the U.S. military. Service is both the greatest burden and the greatest reward.
Separated from family, friends and home, the men and women we are here to honor traveled abroad into uncertain environments, often into conflict, to carry out the foreign policy of the United States.
In so doing, they upheld a tradition of duty we are proud to recognize. Duty is a sublime word, as Robert E. Lee observed, but duty is not an indefinable word. It is, I believe, doing what one has to do, when one has to do it, whether or not one wants to do it.
And isn’t that the cornerstone of military service? On this hollowed ground and in the cemeteries for American soldiers around the world lie the remains of those who were called by their sense of duty to serve-- both military and civilian, some named and some known only to God.
But, commemorating alone does not suffice. The second thing we must do is honor the meaning of the sacrifices of those who have gone before us -- by advancing their work and by advancing the ideals of democracy and of freedom.
I see many friends here today. Friends in service to their countries… some in the military, others in diplomatic service. There were times, some distant and some recent, when the nations represented here were in conflict with each other or with the United States.
But yet, here we sit in this beautiful garden and cemetery-- as friends and allies. We agree that democracy is better than tyranny, that rule of law is better than despotism, that individual rights are better than mob rule.
Ultimately, I believe, we come together knowing that those ideals cherished by democracies - freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, liberty – only exist because of service and sacrifice.
And so our work remains… to not only remember our honored dead, but to advance the cause that our service men and women “so nobly gave the last full measure of devotion” to defend.
As Lincoln so beautifully wrote, from those who have fallen in service to their country, “we take increased devotion to th[eir] cause… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Thank you and God bless you all.
|
