Best Presidential Memorial Day Quotes

Best Presidential Memorial Day Quotes Humanitarian, educator, and former tennis player Arthur Ashe once said, True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. As Memorial Day approaches, spare a moment to think about the many soldiers who died fighting for liberty. American Presidents Speak on Memorial Day The 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, expressed it beautifully, Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free. As another American president, Abraham Lincoln, put it, Freedom is the last, best hope of earth. Lincoln steered the country through the Civil War, saved the Union and ended slavery. Who better to define freedom for us? These are some of the best Memorial Day quotes from American presidents. Read their words of inspiration, and understand the heart of an American patriot. John F. Kennedy Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. Richard Nixon, 1974 What we do with this peace- whether we preserve it and defend it, or whether we lose it and let it slip away- will be the measure of our worthiness of the spirit and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands who gave their lives in two World Wars, Korea, and in Vietnam. This Memorial Day should remind us of the greatness that past generations of Americans achieved from Valley Forge to Vietnam, and it should inspire us with the determination to keep America great and free by keeping America safe and strong in our own time, a time of unique destiny and opportunity for our Nation. Peace is the real and right memorial for those who have died in  war. Benjamin Harrison I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. Woodrow Wilson, 1914 I believe that soldiers will bear me out in saying that both come in time of battle. I take it that the moral courage comes in going into the battle, and the physical courage in staying in. Therefore this peculiar thing comes about, that we can stand here and praise the memory of these soldiers in the interest of peace. They set us the example of self-sacrifice, which if followed in peace will make it unnecessary that men should follow war any more. They do not need our praise. They do not need that our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We come not for their sakes but for our own, in order that we may drink at the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves selves drank. Lyndon Johnson, 1966 On this Memorial Day, it is right for us to remember the living and the dead for whom the call of their country has meant much pain and sacrifice. Peace does not come just because we wish for it. Peace must be fought for. It must be built stone by stone. Herbert Hoover, 1931 It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live. An ideal is an unselfish aspiration. Its purpose is the general welfare not only of this but of future generations. It is a thing of the spirit. It is a generous and humane desire that all men may share equally in a common good. Our ideals are the cement, which binds human society. Valley Forge has come indeed to be a symbol in American life. It is more than the name  for  a place, more than the scene of a military episode, more than just a critical event in history. Freedom was won here by fortitude  not  by the flash of the sword. Bill Clinton, 2000 You fought for freedom in foreign lands, knowing it would protect our freedom at home. Today, freedom advances all around the world, and for the first time in all human history, more than half the world’s people choose their own leaders. Yes, America has made your sacrifice matter. George Bush 1992 Whether we observe the occasion through public ceremony or through private prayer, Memorial Day leaves few hearts unmoved. Each of the patriots whom we remember on this day was first a beloved son or daughter, a brother or sister, or a spouse, friend, and neighbor.   2003 Their sacrifice was great, but not in vain. All Americans and every free nation on earth can trace their liberty to the white markers of places like Arlington National Cemetery. And may God keep us ever grateful. 2005 Looking across this field, we see the scale of heroism and sacrifice. All who are buried here understood their duty. All stood to protect America. And all carried with them memories of a family that they hoped to keep safe by their sacrifice. Barack Obama, 2009 They, and  we,  are the legacies of an unbroken chain of proud men and women who served their country with honor, who waged war so that we might know peace, who braved hardship so that we might know opportunity, who paid the ultimate price so that we might know freedom. If the fallen could speak to us, what would they say? Would they console us? Perhaps they might say that while they could not know they’d be called upon to storm a beach through a hail of gunfire, they were willing to give up everything for the defense of our freedom; that while they could not know they’d be called upon to jump into the mountains of Afghanistan and seek an elusive enemy, they were willing to sacrifice all for their country; that while they couldn’t possibly know they would be called to leave this world for another, they were willing to take that chance to save the lives of their brothers and  sisters  in arms.

Conflicts Produced by Growth of Cities in 19th and Early 20th Century Essay

Conflicts Produced by Growth of Cities in 19th and Early 20th Century Spain - Essay Example Because of the liberty to acquire and engage in trade and commerce, great enterprises are found in republican but not in monarchical governments (Montesquieu 1748, cited in De Long and Shleifer 1992). In other words, princes are said to be bad for the growth of cities (Ibid). By analysis, "a nation in slavery labors more to preserve than to acquire but a free nation, more to acquire than to preserve" (Van Gelderen and Skinner 2002). Imperial Spain, for itself, being the core of the immense empire ruled by absolutist Habsburg princes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries imposed heavy tax burdens on the prosperous towns of Catalonia and Andalusia. This was to enable fighting the wars of the Counterreformation. It then saw later on its cities lose wealth and population that by 1800 Spain had become virtually isolated and backward (De Long and Shleifer 1992). With technological advances in agriculture and transportation, cities can be said to grow with trade, but can take the back burner with famine and disease. Cities rose and fell with the military fortunes of city-states, territorial empires and nation-states, but with the industrial revolution, urbanization rose (Kim 1995.) It is contended, despite the fast growth of capital and court cities, absolutism is a negative factor. The particular failure of cities located near capitals to grow suggests that absolutism hand a hand in it (Ibid). The Isabeline system (1833-1868) of Spain is an example of failed government because "the crown was capricious and authoritarian and the political system too narrow and exclusive" (Payne 1973). The Spanish polity had to be reorganized through the workings of one Antonio Cnovas del Castillo in establishing a workable constitutional monarchy, liberalizing in the process the Isabeline system (Ibid). III. Republicanism The 19th and early 20th centuries of Spain were spent in passionate tug and pull between radical republicanism and absolute monarchy. Imperial Spain lost most of its dominions in the West on account of colonial rebellions in the first half of the 19th century. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were gone from the Spanish-American War in 1898. ("Spain," Thomas Gale 2005) Republicanism is government by elected representatives instead of a king. On the other hand, monarchy is that form of government where the head of State is not elected and bases his office on a higher law that all power comes from a transcendental source (Habsburg 1996). Republicanism is said to be better than a monarchy (Wyger Velema, cited in van Gelderen et al. 2002) as the main characteristics of monarchial rule are that laws that emerge are all in the interest of the court and not the subject. Worse yet, the interpretation and explanation of these laws are in the hands of the king and therefore totally unpredictable and arbitrary (Ibid). The unmitigated dreadfulness and barbarism of monarchial rule in the past lead to revolt thence to the emergence of a republic in which assemblies of the state variously composed in each the province were held sovereign (Habsburg 1996). Upholding the rule of law and the protection of life, liberty, and property may be republic ideals, however its attainment and survival are demanding and

Symbolize and meaning of Play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Symbolize and meaning of Play - Essay Example The Christmas tree, Nora’s fancy dress costume and the Tarantella dance are powerful symbols which enhance the meaning of the play. The Christmas tree is a symbol of Nora herself. Nora presents a faà §ade to the world just like the tree is covered with glittering ornaments. She presents herself as a frivolous, carefree woman, whose husband calls his â€Å"little skylark,† â€Å"little squirrel† and â€Å"little song-bird† (Ibsen, I). She sparkles like the tree. However, the ‘unornamented’ Nora is a woman of great strength of character, who controls her husband, struggles with debt and is willing to sacrifice herself for her family. She is like the Christmas tree which she wants hidden and seen only â€Å"when it is dressed† (Ibsen, I). As the tree appears denuded of ornaments at the start of Act II, it represents the Nora who is stripping away the outer decorations of her own personality to assert her true identity. Nora’s fancy dress costume is another graphic symbol in the drama. She puts on the costume of a Neapolitan fisher-girl, made for her by Helmer. Again, the dress demonstrates Nora’s superficial assumption of the role prescribed for her by her husband and society. Nora is the â€Å"doll-wife† (Ibsen, III) who Helmer dresses. She submissively tells him, â€Å"Torvald, couldnt you take me in hand and decide what I shall go as, and what sort of a dress I shall wear?† (Ibsen, I). As Nora sheds her assumed identity and prepares to reveal her true personality, she tells her husband that she is â€Å"Taking off my fancy dress† (Ibsen, III). The torn dress also signifies the breaking-down of their marriage. The Tarantella dance is a very powerful symbol of Nora’s state of mind. Nora is deeply affected by Helmer’s condemnation of all deception as he says, â€Å"such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil†