United States Air Force Veteran Major Jeff Van Havel’s Veteran Memorial Dedication Speech August 30, 2003
As a veteran, I think I would like to start off personally thanking everyone who had to do with creating the monument back there. I know a lot of people put in a lot of effort and as a veteran I would like to thank you too. I would also like to thank Jeanne Laser for asking me to speak today. I was thrilled by the invitation; I really appreciate it, thanks.
Ok, so why are we here on this beautiful day, well were here of course to dedicate the monument, and who are these people these veterans were dedicating this monument too. Well they’re everyone from the slick talking street kid from Brooklyn to the surf punk from California and everyone in between, but you know I think for the most part most veteran’s in the history of our country have been pretty normal kids from places like Waldron, you know the farmers kids, the factory workers kids and the teachers kids from places like Waldron. I think that’s a pretty close representation of the real one. They’ve been called over the years Continentals, Buffalo Soldiers, Yanks, Dough Boys and GI’s. Again Know matter where they come from they have all served honorably and why is it that we want to honor these veteran’s.
Well in April 2002 the Unites States Congress passed a current resolution 282, which named the American GI the person of the century for the last century. So congress wants to honor them and we want to honor them. And why is it that we want to honor these people? Well as I see it, it is because of the contributions that they have made to our society.
You know it’s one thing for Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Patrick Henry to be talking about liberty, equality and freedom in Williamsburg and Philadelphia. But without some muscle to back up the era of political ideas they never would have become reality without the might of the American army at the time backing up those ideas. Jefferson, Adams and Henry would have been nothing more than traders stretched by the neck, and so the first debt that we owe to our veteran’s is the muscle to actually create the just and free and civil society that we live in today. No of course we don’t live in a perfect society and we never will but as long as we recognize that fact we can always work on making it better. You know the worst institution that we inherited as a country from the old world was of course slavery and we as a country wrestle with it for 80 years trying to expunge it.
In the end the only thing we could do was a contest of battle or a contest of blood to try and expunge it from our country. And some of our veteran’s of the civil war volunteered because they wanted to be there and wanted to take part, others were there because there government tapped them on the shoulder and said today is the day that we need you. But those people went and served under the worst difficult conditions and in the end they left our society much freer, much juster, and much opener for a large segment of our society, so those people did a major good for our country and making our society better.
Most of our wars in the last 105 years from the Spanish American war until now have been of course in some degree for our own national self defense but everyone of those wars has had a major element of bringing are ideas of liberty, freedom, coloration and justice to other people’s in the world. All the way back to the Spanish American war kicking out the remnants of a dieing Spanish empire. In America’s World War I our GI’s tipped the balance and Europe from the stalemate that was consuming all of Europe. World War II the very best example in our country’s history of pure good versus pure evil, are guys went all over the world and served on the side of good and brought all are ideas, civil liberties, justices, freedoms and toleration to people all over the world in Korea, Vietnam and the long twilight of the Cold War. Are guys sometimes hot and sometimes cold in wars always stood ready to fight and contribute and of course we have had major elements of our own national defense at stake in all those wars. But in every one of those wars a major-major part of it was our ideas of spreading liberty, justice and toleration throughout the world.
In a post September 11th world I feel that were bringing to gaze in the battle of good versus evil against a new kind of people that were not use to. The kind of people that hates the very idea of our society, the civil toleration, justice and freedom that we all have they see as a weakness and despicable. An example the fact that we have so many religious denominations and we openly tolerate them they see that as weakness. So again I see us agaze in the battle of good versus evil against the people who hate everything we stand for. So I as I see it, I said our veteran’s created and gave the muscle that created the society we live in, they’ve worked throughout our history to make it better and now they’re engaged in spreading our ides of liberty and justice throughout the world.
So what can we do to honor these people and repay them? Of course we will never be able to repay the lost years for the people who sacrificed, to say that we could otherwise is a mute point. But the one thing we can do, we can do several things, we can recognize and always remember them and I guess the biggest part of it I see is summed up in two phrases. One is that “Freedom isn’t free” and the second one is to say that “America will only be the land of the free for as long as were the home of the brave.” And by those I mean we need to always remember our moral obligations to those who went before us and carry the heavy burden of freedom, to be able to pass it on to our children. I wish we lived in a perfect world where we could all get along we wouldn’t need to fight; we wouldn’t need to have veteran’s. But fortunately I don’t see that as a possibility at least any time in the near future. So I say till we have a moral burden to those who went before us to contribute to our society and defend it, and also we have a bigger moral burden I feel that we defend it and pass it on to our children better than we have received it from our society.
So I feel the best way we can honor our society and veteran’s is to always bear the heavy burdens, bear the heavy lifting of making our society better and keeping it free, just and open and liberal in the best sense of the word and passing it on to our children. So again like I say I wish we lived in a perfect world but we don’t that just the way it is.
So in conclusion I guess the thing I would like to ask everyone to do is as the years go by and we drive by this beautiful monument back here, and as it becomes more and more fixed as part of the landscape and no longer a novelty. I don’t want you guys to even drive a car or walk by it without taking some time to think and pause and reflect on the men and women that it’s designed to honor. At least just for the moment, just stop and pause and reflect on the people who gave the muscle to create our society, and have made it better for our ideas of liberty and justice and tolerance throughout the world. That’s what this monument is here to honor.
Thank You very much for letting me speak to you today and God bless America! Thank You.