Honoring their Sacrifice and Standing for Peace on Memorial Day

     On Memorial Day we remember the service and the sacrifice of those who created, preserved and protected our nation, and especially those who gave their lives to defend our freedom.  It is a day to remember the universal soldier and all the wars that have been fought, here and abroad.     

     I grew up with a veteran of WWII, Leopold Podgorski, a pilot with the Polish Air Force, whose plane was shot down in the German invasion of his country.  I honor the memory of my father and of all the Allied soldiers who fought with him to stop the Axis invaders.  That was a just and a necessary war.

     I honor especially the memory of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who as our outgoing president turning the leadership of the country over to President John F. Kennedy, advised and warned us "Beware the military industrial complex."

     Every war fought by the United States since WWII has, in the opinion of many, been unnecessary and unjust.  These wars have not made us safer.  They have not earned us the admiration and respect of the world.  In fact we have become as hated and feared as the Axis Powers once were in many parts of the world.

     I thank the men and women who serve in our armed forces today.  May they protect us from invasion and occupation by a foreign power.  May they never have to ask "What are we doing there?" as one widely quoted wounded warrior did recently at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

     Bring the troops home.  Take good care of them when they get home.  And never, never again send them off to fight an unnnecessary, unjust war.