Honor Them by Remembering Every Day

I was privileged to deliver the remarks at Wyoming's Veterans Memorial Garden last night for the 2009 Memorial Day observance. I called on all of us to honor those who gave all by the way we live every day. Remembering is not simply a mental activity; it is embodied in our actions that serve to honor their memories.

I closed my remarks with a poem by Archibald MacLeish. He speaks for them when he asks:

“Who in the still houses has not heard them?

“They say. Our deaths are not ours; they are yours. They will mean what you make them mean.

“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. We were young, we have died, remember us.”