Freedom is not free. It comes at incredible cost. Throughout our nation’s history, whenever our country has been attacked, or when the enemies of freedom have threatened peace in our world, American men and women in uniform, from all backgrounds and all walks of life have answered the call to defend us.

 

Over the past 234 years, millions of brave Americans have gone into harm’s way so that we could enjoy the blessings of peace and prosperity. Too often, may of us take these freedoms for granted—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and the freedom to live our lives the way we choose. You know, my friend and colleague, Congressman Sam Johnson, himself a decorated veteran, often talks about the short message he found scratched on the wall of his prison cell, in Vietnam where he was held as a P.O.W.:  “Freedom has a taste to those who fight, and almost die, that the protected will never know.”

 

From the American Revolution to Operation Iraqi Freedom, many of America’s best and brightest, many of whom we know as friends or family, have paid the price of our freedom with their lives. Called on by their country, acting out of patriotism and in the most dangerous of circumstances, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have demonstrated extraordinary courage in defending our country and the principles of democracy that we hold dear. Many Americans left behind their friends, their hopes and dreams and their families, some never to return to them or to their country ever again. We must also remember the families of the fallen who are left to carry on after—President Lincoln once said—“having laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”

 

As President Calvin Coolidge once said, “A nation which forgets its defenders will itself soon be forgotten.” We are all committed to making sure we never forget. So, whether you plan to attend a ceremony in your town or just gather together with friends and family—I urge you to take a moment out and remember our defenders who paid the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day.

 

My thoughts are on those heroes who have paid that ultimate sacrifice for their country and my prayers of comfort continue to be with their families. It is because of their bravery and sacrifice that my seven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter will sleep in a safer America tonight.

 

As Ronald Reagan said, “We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so that we may always be free.”