1.2 million have died for peace, freedom

[The following is the written version of Assemblyman Todd Spitzer’s

speech at the Laguna Beach Memorial Day ceremony at Heisler Park.]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, members of the American Legion

and VFW, and honored guests.

It is truly an honor to be here, in the presence of heroes. Today,

I stand on this stage amongst greatness.

Far too often we forget that every day, we walk in the company of

heroes. You are in the cars next to us as we drive down the freeway;

you sit next to us in movie theaters; and pass you us as we walk down

the street.

However, for every hero we experience in our day-to-day lives,

there are thousands who never returned home, whose heroism lives

through the stories of those for whom they fought so valiantly to

protect.

Today we remember those who are not here for us to thank in person

-- those who died so that we can be free -- those who paid the

ultimate price for freedom -- those who valued duty over life itself.

It is amazing what free men can do once they decide to act. One

person, one act, can change the course of history. One person, one

act, can free a city, a nation, and a world from oppression.

I would like all of the veterans here to do me a favor. Look at

your hands. At one point, the fate of the world rested right there --

in your hands. Your two hands were the greatest barrier against evil.

You stood, shoulder to shoulder with others, and faced all that is

evil in this world. And you fought.

You fought on battlefields that now are synonymous with the

heroism you exhibited so many years ago. Omaha Beach, Normandy,

France. Mount Suribachi, Iwo-Jima.

The first Memorial Day celebration lasted only one minute as one

man stood among a few observers and dedicated a battlefield still

soaked and stained with American blood. No greater speech has been

written which so eloquently encapsulates Memorial Day than Lincoln’s

Gettysburg Address. On a chilly November day, Lincoln stood on one of

the most famous battlefields and memorialized the over 51,000 who had

been killed, wounded, captured, or had gone missing at that site.

Solemnly, Lincoln declared, “We are met on a great battlefield of

that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting

place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we

may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate,

we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men,

living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our

poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long

remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did

here.”

As the smoke cleared from the battlefields of the Civil War,

grateful Americans began the tradition of placing wreaths, crosses,

and bouquets on the graves of veterans, when this day was originally

named Decoration Day. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day

ceremonies were being held on May 30th throughout the nation. And in

1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of

Congress which placed this day on the last Monday of May.

This year, this Memorial Day is unique. Not only does the national

holiday also happen to fall on the actual Memorial Day, May 30th, but

this is the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Today, we stand on the cliffs overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean.

Sixty-one years ago, on a rainy and gray morning in June, on a

similar beach, America turned the tides of World War II.

One witness described the scene as follows: “Darkness enveloped

the whole American armada. Not a pinpoint of light showed from those

hundreds of ships as they surged on through the night toward their

destiny, carrying across the ageless and indifferent sea tens of

thousands of young men...”

Those brave men faced an uphill battle, literally. The Germans

were encased in bunkers all along the beach and up the cliffs. But

our men still had the advantage. As Americans, we value freedom above

all else, even life itself. Thousands of soldiers chose to give their

lives so that the world could be free.

Over 5,000 Allied soldiers died on D-Day alone, successfully

taking the beaches of Normandy. At Omaha Beach today, the ground is

covered in a vast blanket of white. Not from snow, but from the

thousands of white crosses -- the thousands of graves that stretch as

far as the eye can see. There are over 9,000 graves on the bluffs at

Omaha Beach; 9,378 fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, neighbors,

friends, heroes.

Winston Churchill once said of us: “The United States is like a

gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there is no limit to

the power it can generate.”

The Americans going into World War II came from the farms and the

cities, left their plows and their factories, and these everyday

people, became deadly warriors. They left home, and fought, and gave

their lives, for people they had never met, in countries they had

never seen before the war. They did not die freeing one nation, one

region. They died defending and liberating the world itself from the

ravages of tyrannical oppression.

Sixty years later, that fight is not over. And a new generation is

now engaged, throughout the world, in a similar battle, spreading

freedom and democracy throughout the world. With them they carry the

memories and stories of the fallen heroes of the past as they fight

terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For your heroism in battles, many of you are known as the Greatest

Generation. But for your actions after victory, America will be

remembered until the last of generations.

Yet America, and the American soldier are a paradox. We fight wars

to liberate, not to enslave. We write constitutions for the defeated,

and insist that regimes turn toward democracy and freedom. At their

finest hour, Americans, and American soldiers treat the vanquished

with nobility, not humiliation.

You do not see the American Flag flying in Trafalgar Square in

London, or at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You see sovereign nations.

And most importantly, you see peaceful democracies.

Indeed, the American solider covets freedom and America so much,

he or she spends long years in foreign lands far from home. Soldiers

revere freedom, so they sacrifice their own that we may be free. They

defend our right to live as individuals, yet yield their

individuality to that cause.

They value life, and so bravely ready themselves to die in the

service of our country.

Our soldiers fight and die, not for the glory of war, but for the

prize of freedom. Perhaps the words of the philosopher John Stuart

Mill say it best:

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed

and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks

nothing of war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is

willing to fight, nothing he cares about more than his own personal

safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free ... “

All told, through all wars, more than 42,348,460 Americans have

served in our armed forces.

Over 1,190,000 people have died for this country. In World War II

alone, there were 406,000 American casualties.

Soldiers’ names are etched in the cold stone of the Vietnam

Memorial; some are depicted in statues of historic events. But for

most, their glory is not remembered or commemorated in an elaborate

way. Countless soldiers, their names, faces, and stories, have faded

away into death-toll numbers in a high school history book. But they

are never forgotten. Their memorial is not physical. Their memorial

is freedom itself.

The following words, inscribed at Arlington National Cemetery, are

dedicated to them: “Nor for fame or reward, not for place or rank,

not lured by ambition or goaded by necessity, but in simple obedience

to duty as they understood it, these men suffered all, sacrificed

all, dared all -- and died.”

But our fallen soldiers are more than just a number; they are

family, friends, husbands, wives, neighbors, mothers, fathers, sons,

daughters, and most of all, heroes.

We here today, have the greatest tool to remember and pay tribute

to these fallen heroes -- our memories and our voices. By sharing the

stories of those who diligently fought for this country, we ensure

that they have not died in vain.

Stories such as these:

An Army helicopter crashed in the middle of a dense maze of shacks

in Mogadishu, Somalia. A growing number of enemy troops were closing

in on the site where four critically wounded soldiers were trapped in

the wreckage. Master Sgt. Gary Gordon and Sgt. First Class Randall

Shughart volunteered to go to aid their fallen comrades. Subjected to

intense fire from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades,

they fought their way through the narrow streets to the crash site.

They stayed and fought until their ammunition was exhausted. After

Sgt. Shughart was killed, Master Sgt. Gordon took a rifle from the

debris, handed it to an injured pilot, wished him “Good luck,” and

continued to fight until he, himself, was fatally wounded.

In a letter home, Josh Byers, an Army captain assigned to Fox

Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment at Fort Carson,

Colorado, wrote: “Things are going OK, relatively speaking here ... I

see more courage in a day than I could ever have imagined before

this. You inspire me to keep going out there. You’ve made it so much

easier for me to see the big picture as I go through life. That

service to God and others is what matters.”

Capt. Josh Byers, a West Point graduate, was killed when his

convoy hit an explosive device east of Baghdad.

The cost of freedom, of democracy, has been tremendous. The

periods of peace that our country has enjoyed have been few. The

longest time of complete tranquillity for our armed forces was the 23

years between World Wars I and II. And for those who held the fate of

our nation -- of our world -- in their hands, you did not fail.

And we are at war as we speak. In Orange County alone, 22 men have

given their lives in Afghanistan an Iraq since the World Trade Center

was gutted -- September 11, 2001.

For every of the 1,190,000 people who have died defending our

freedom, there is a similar story of dedication, commitment, and

heroism. It is our duty, and our obligation, to share those stories

with our children, our grandchildren, and everyone else. Through

these stories, heroism has a face, a name, a memory which will never

die.

And for that, the world will be forever thankful.

God bless our living veterans; God bless those who died defending

liberty and God bless our way of life in the United States of

America.