In Honor of Those Who Have Died...

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I think about the people that fought in the wars,
some have died to keep us free.

I think about the men and women,
Who saved lives on land and at sea.

I look at the monuments,
In memory of the brave.

I help plant red flowers
At my grandfather's grave.

At the parade, I see flags flying,
Red, white and blue.

I watch rows of different uniforms,
Navy, white and brown too.

The soldiers salute with pride.

Memorial Day remembers and honors
those who have died.

But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition, we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. But, above all, we have learned that whether a man accepts from Fortune her spade, and will look downward and dig, or from Aspiration her axe and cord, and will scale the ice, the one and only success which it is his to command is to bring to his work a mighty heart.

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo'
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few;
On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread;
But Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lakes, from the hills, from the skies,
All is well, safely rest.
God is nigh.


Then good night, peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright,
God is near, do not fear
Friend, good night.

References:

Pictures: All are by me.

Audio:
1. Gettysburg Address by Johnny Cash
2. Tonight In America by David Lynn Jones
3. Inaugural Address by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
4. Eulogy by Edward Kennedy
5. Chimes of Freedom by the Byrds
6. America the Beautiful by Ray Charles
7. This Land Is Your Land by Bruce Springsteen

Poems:
1. Dirge For Two Veterans by Walt Whitman
2. In Flanders Field by John McCrae
3. Memorial Day by Anna, a 3rd grader
4. Memorial Day Speech by Oliver Wendal Holmes
5. The Bivouacs of the Dead by Theodore O'Hara
6. Taps by Major General Daniel Butterfield, Army of the Potomac