A Time for Reflection and Thanks
In a few days, the nation will be celebrating Memorial Day 2026, eighty-one (81) years since hostilities ended among the many warring nations of the world, and documents of surrender were signed on the deck of the USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Millions perished in World War II, and it is indeed a time for remembrance. This year, however, adds two very special moments of significance. One week later, on June 6, will mark 82 years….more than eight decades….since June 6, 1944, when 156,000 troops from Britain, Canada, France, and the United States stormed the beaches at Normandy, France, gaining a foothold on the European Continent…the single largest invasion in recorded history and a testimony to sound strategic planning. These brave souls spearheaded the Allied Effort to rescue millions from the tyrannical clutches of Nazi Germany, culminating in April 1945 when Freedom was once again restored. Almost to the day, one month later, on July 4, 2026, America will celebrate its 250th Birthday, a momentous occasion.
It seems fitting and proper that we take these opportunities to give thanks for all those who defended our nation in a time of great peril, and give honor, respect, and appreciation to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today. From the Revolutionary War up to the present day, they sacrificed their tomorrows for our todays! It is important that we remember… we are because they were!
I have always found the words of the beautiful poem titled “America the Beautiful,” by Katherine Lee Bates, then 33 years old in 1892, to be one way to express such appreciation. Like most of you, I learned the words of the first verse of this poem at a young age in grammar school. But I never fully learned the remaining three verses and so, I thought I would print them and talk about them briefly. I am sure Katherine Lee Bates would be very proud to know that her words, later committed to music in 1903 by Samuel Augustus Howe, have been the subject of some truly outstanding renditions by such noted singers as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Mariah Carey, the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and many others. But the words of her poem are really the heart and soul of this beautiful piece. I am sure you recall the first verse and the stirring phrases describing “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties.” These all to mind the beauty of our great land and the magnificent, rich bounty God in His benevolence has granted us. But, beyond this, Katherine Lee Bates brilliantly reminds us of our pioneering forebears who “beat a thoroughfare of freedom…. across the wilderness” and then pays eloquent tribute to defenders of our nation in war, the brave “heroes who more than self their country loved.” The author then turns her gaze to the future and wistfully writes of a time when America’s “alabaster cities” will “gleam undimmed by human tears.”
It is difficult to read this entire poem without feeling deep emotion. I remember vividly the stoic voices singing the first verse at Ground Zero on 9/11, and I recall Pope John Paul II reciting its fervent prayer as he descended from his plane on his first visit to the United States: “America, America, God shed His grace on thee!” And forgive me, but in my opinion, no one sang “America the Beautiful” like Kate Smith before political expediency and woke-ness caused many to refuse to let her voice be heard at athletic events across our nation! I hope and pray that our National Pastime, Baseball, reverses its position on this and allows this rendition to once again be heard at stadiums across the land.
So, as we all celebrate yet another Memorial Day, take a moment to read Katherine Lee Bates’ magnificent work (full copy below) and give thanks to God that we live in the “land of the free” because it is and always has been the “home of the brave.” And may God continue to bless this land we love so much.
At the end of America the Beautiful, I have inserted the full original text (actually handwritten) by President Abraham Lincoln, which we all know as the Gettysburg Address. It is arguably the most powerful, prescient speech ever given, and his words ring true today. Following that, you will see a poem written by Roy Davenport and published by the WWII Veterans Committee that captures the essence of what has been called “A Mighty Endeavor: Operation Overlord,” the code name for D-Day.
America The Beautiful
By Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plan!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims’ feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved.
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine.
Till’ all success be nobleness
And every gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years.
Thine alabaster cities gleam.
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood.
From sea to shining sea!
The Gettysburg Address
By Abraham Lincoln
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor longer remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
So, let us begin, once again…. towards our next 250 years!
A Mighty Endeavor-D-Day
One the sixth of June Nineteen forty four
A mighty force gathered on distant shore.
Six thousand ships filled with brave men.
Crossed the Channel to the evil that awaited them.
The world waited with bated breath
As many young men, the best we had, faced certain death.
Onto the beaches…. wave after wave
Life and limb the price they willingly paid.
From every nation where men were free
The fought and died for liberty.
They could not fail though the odds were great.
That many would fall at this hell’s gate
They stormed those beaches in a rain of fire.
Scaling cliffs of death inching higher and higher.
Though many would fall, never reaching the top
But despite that cost, they did not stop.
Now what power could drive these noble men
To fight when odds said they could not win?
Such courage must come from a higher power
That emboldened them to fight, and never cower
In a time like this all you can do is pray
That God hears and His angels lead the way
For surely miracles answered many a plea
On those bloody beaches of Normandy
So today we live with freedom bought
With a price that was paid by a victory fought
By men with names now written on stone
And unknown heroes who never came home
