To all of our men and women in uniform, our veterans, and their families, on this Memorial Day, and every day, we thank you for your courage, dedication and service.

The men and women of our Armed Forces continue to serve, both here and abroad, fighting for our freedom and the freedom of others. In addition to these heroic individuals, we now have a new group of heroes who are sacrificing their lives – nurses, doctors, hospital workers, delivery personnel, postal workers, grocery store workers and others — this time from an invisible enemy, the novel coronavirus.

On Memorial Day we honor those who paid the ultimate price. In addition to those who have given their lives in battle, today I want to also honor those who have died trying to fight this deadly disease and protect others from its wrath.

At this time, when many feel our freedom is curtailed by stay-at-home orders and a global pandemic, let us remember these words:

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

                                                            Elmer Davis

“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

                                                            Harry S. Truman

Our current fears, and we have many of them  – mortality, unemployment, lost income, the lives of our loved ones, uncertainty about the future – while different from those of our military fighting men and women, are just as real. Instead of focusing on our fears, let us think about the freedoms we are grateful for.

Today let us take our example from our brave soldiers and those fighting on the front lines of this pandemic, and summon their same courage.

Lest we forget, to them we owe our freedom.