Remember our Amerian values
(Editor’s note: This was submitted by Department of Pennsylvania Veterans of Foreign Wars State Chaplain and Vietnam Veteran Peter R. Hook.)
Each year on Memorial Day, Americans honor those who gave their lives so that future generations of Americans might live in freedom.
All across our wonderful country, Americans will remember and give thanks for our fallen heroes.
With flags at half-mast, with the stars-and-stripes placed at graves, with the distribution of Poppies, with colorful parades, with quiet prayers of thanksgiving, and with the playing of “Taps” – our national requiem – we take time to remember those who died defending our freedoms. And, we also honor all veterans who have served, who would have made the same sacrifice, if God had willed it.
One of the greatest gifts each one of us has been given by our creator is the gift of life. In addition to life, we have been given the great privilege of living in the United States of America-the greatest nation on the face of the earth. The USA is also the one nation that has done more good for others than any other nation in history.
America is a nation of values. And our values, which are on every American coin, are exceptional! No other country in the world has all three of these values, except us. Take a look at a penny. On the back of the penny you will find “E. Pluribus Unu,” and on the front you will see “In God We Trust” and “Liberty.”
These three values are what set America apart and make us not only unique, but exceptional.
n E. PLURIBUS UNUM – From many one: We come from different ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds, but we are Americans. We are one nation! What makes us great, and the ideal that should be stressed, is not our diversity, but our unity. From many diverse backgrounds we are one. We are Americans!
n IN GOD WE TRUST: We are One Nation under God. Our country was founded overwhelmingly by men and women who believed in a Supreme Being as revealed in the Sacred Scriptures. Our Declaration of Independence states that it is God, not the government, who has given us the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
n LIBERTY: As individuals we have liberty. We have freedom. What we pursue, and what we do with our life, is up to us.
Those three values, and particularly “Liberty” and “Freedom,” is what we defend and die for. Americans from different ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds fought and died – not just for a piece of land, as important as that is – but they fought and died for the essence of America. The beliefs and values we hold, and the American flag represents those values.
Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and abolitionist, who lived during the 1800’s said, “A thoughtful mind, when it sees our nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the nation itself, and what it stands for.”
And that is what each of us who are Americans should cherish and hold dear. And that is what each person who has served, or is serving, in our Armed Forces seeks to defend. And, each person who died fighting one of our wars, fought to defend and preserve those values…and in particular, freedom!
If a country forgets the values upon which it was founded it will not be long before it forgets why its citizens fought and died, and what they were defending.
Where would we, who are citizens of the United States of America, be today if there had not been those who counted the cost of freedom and willingly served and sacrificed for it?
So, not just on Memorial Day, but whenever you handle an American coin or look at an American Flag, please remember our American values. Please remember that if not for those men and women who fought and died to preserve them, our nation would be a very different and less enjoyable place to live.
Rev. Peter R. Hook
PA VFW State Chaplain
Langhorne, Pa.