Let Us Remember

On this Veterans Day, let us honor all of those who have given their lives in the pursuit of freedom, thank those who have previously fought, and those who continue to protect us today.

Oxford University prominently displays a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to a mother who lost five sons in the Civil War. Scholars in England claim that Lincoln’s letter provides a “model of the purest English, rarely, if ever, surpassed.”

On Nov. 21, 1864, President Lincoln wrote to the widow Lydia Bixby:

Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln

You may recall hearing these words in the movie, "Saving Private Ryan." I cannot think of words truer that bring tears to my eyes, weight to my heart and thanks to my lips. Please join me in thanking a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine today for their commitment to this great country of ours and to what they give to the world.

Proud mother of a US Army Captain. Sea Witch