Veterans day at American Legion Post 449 was a tribute to those who served in the military during a wartime period. It is the second year that the memorial service was sponsored by SAL(Sons of American Legion).
For the second year I was asked to by the keynote speaker, and as a member of Post 449 and their Judge Advocate I was proud to accept.
The theme of my address was a review of a book copyright of 1910 and entitled "PATRIOTIC ORATIONS" By Charles Henry Flower, late Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The introduction states "Patriotism is a lichen clinging to its own rock. It grows by the century in its original habitat. It defies alike the frost and ice of the frigid zone and the suns and sands of equatorial deserts. It resists transplanting".
Bishop Fowler quotes President Abraham Lincoln where in the Gettysburg address he said "We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract".
It has always been my firm belief that every man and woman who serves in our military is a hero because they dedicated their lives to serving the United States of America and for that reason alone they have earned our respect.
Bishop Fowler wrote of great deeds of great men: "Heroism is a moral quality. It may be the glory of the humblest man or child. High station furnishes a pedestal on which the Glory of an heroic achievement may be exhibited, but it is no part of the act itself. Many private soldier has stood on picket under the guns of a treacherous foe, when his humble duty was as noble as the conduct of the officer whose sleep he guarded at such peril and whose name appears on the bulletin".
So let us remember all those brave and patriotic heroes from the Revolutionary War to the battlefields of today , both living and dead, who serve our grand nation so that we may live in peace.
