Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. If this is your first time listening, then I thank you. If you're back again, I also thank you for that as well. Perhaps you have a favorite place that you like to listen to, the podcast. If you're new, you can certainly find the podcast in various formats from Apple Podcasts to Google, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and a dozen or so other outlets. If all else fails, just go to the internet and type in Freedom's Creed with Rex Reed, and you'll be led to where you can listen to the podcast. So thanks for that. It's actually the day after Memorial Day. And think about all the people who have lost a loved one to any campaign throughout our history. And imagine how they felt the day after they received the news of the passing of their loved one. I've not experienced that firsthand, but I do have those in my family history who lost their lives during a campaign. And I can only imagine the difficulty that members of their family had, not only finding out the news of that, but particularly the day after. That's the day that reality sets in and you realize that you will not see that loved one again in this life. So it has to be a very sobering experience, I can only imagine, as I said. Now it's true that losing a loved one in any way, the day after, is probably one of the worst. Somehow with time, we figure out how to go on. I experienced this with my sister. She passed away a little over seven years ago in a head-on car accident, and getting the news of that was devastating. But the day after was probably the most sobering and difficult day because it the realization that I wasn't going to be able to pick up the phone and talk to her or go see her or spend time with her or do anything else with her in this life. And so it was difficult. And I think it's true with everyone who loses a loved one. That day after is a lot of times the worst because of the stark reality of the situation. I'm dedicating this abbreviated episode to all the moms and dads, wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, grandparents, nieces, nephews, and friends who had the worst day after upon learning of their loved ones' death in combat or related military exercises, even in peacetime. What I hope is that each of you will think about this particular holiday and how we should be grateful for those who did make the ultimate sacrifice in defending our way of life. Spending time with family and friends is great, and it's made possible because of the sacrifices that those in uniform have made and continue to make to this day to preserve the freedoms that are enshrined in the Constitution. Memorial Day is not just a day that's set aside for us to barbecue or go to a ball game or do anything else that we choose to do. Those things are nice, don't get me wrong, but if we do not have gratitude for those who laid down their lives so that we can do whatever we choose, then we need to reevaluate things, I believe. Think about the lives of all the young people, especially who were taken from us very prematurely. Like us, they had ambitions, they had goals and desires, things that they wanted to do that they never got the chance to do, that we ourselves get to do. To me, it's the height of ingratitude if we do not express thankfulness for those men and women, not just on Memorial Day, but really to think about them throughout the year as well. We live our lives, we take the time to do whatever it is we want to do, we choose to do, we have the freedom to do, and they never got that opportunity. In my view, there is perhaps no more sobering language in all of our history than what was delivered by President Lincoln at the Gettysburg Union Cemetery in 1863. And if you remember your history, there was a gentleman by the name of Edward Everett, who was one of the foremost orators in the country at the time. He actually spoke at the dedication and spoke for more than two hours. President Lincoln, after having spent months trying to figure out what he would say, spent about two minutes in his speech, which I'm going to read to you here momentarily. I've not been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but it is a place that I would like to visit sometime before I die. The dedication took place in mid-November, so we can imagine that it was probably getting a little crisp. I'm sure that if there were any chairs for people to sit on, they were hard, and likely they were just sitting upon the ground or standing the whole time. So you can imagine when Mr. Everett was speaking for over two hours, that the people were probably getting a little bit weary. And then President Lincoln stands up to speak. And in reality he was not that impressed with his own speech, and he thought it was a disappointment. But truly it has come to mean so much to so many people, myself included, because of the elegance and the eloquent nature in which he delivered the speech, I can only imagine what it must have been like to be there in person to hear it, and then be disappointed because you had no way of getting a copy of the speech, at least most people probably didn't have that ability. So I'd like to honor all of our fallen heroes who have given, as Lincoln himself said, the last full measure of devotion. And I quote Forscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon 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 it as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may in all propriety do, 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 hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, while it can never forget what they did here. It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation 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. End of quote. So, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.