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Duty is the Rent
You Pay For Life -- Address delivered at the traveling Vietnam Veteran’s
Memorial Wall - Sunday, November 03, 2002 - 11:00 AM by Jeffrey Alan Foss -
Lantana, Florida
My Fellow
Veterans, distinguished guests and visitors:
"DUTY IS THE RENT YOU PAY FOR LIFE".
That Is an expression the former Queen Mother of England was fond of saying.
"DUTY IS THE RENT YOU PAY FOR LIFE".
The sacrifice of the men and women honored on these hallowed shining slabs of
stone reflects this reality in polished splendor. As we pause in our lives to
think about the sacrifice displayed here, let us not forget the common bond we
all share. For we who fight oppression love the oppressed and fight enslaving
oppressors not for personal gain, but because it is the right thing to do.
Principles of Liberty, Honor, Freedom, Courage, Valor, and Sacrifice, are what
you see reflected from the face of this stone wall – each name a life – each
life a face and a family left behind – each family member left behind – a
citizen enriched beyond measure by the rent – their rent for their
life of freedom - paid in full by one life held dear by that family
member – so that others might breathe this soul-quenching air of freedom.
Society has evolved from repressive kingdoms into our self-governing republic
where reason and enlightenment triumphed over tyranny. This has only been
possible because of those who held beliefs of duty to their own generation
and, therefore, a responsible obligation to future generations to stand up and
pay the rent for freedom and liberty.
We are, as a society, ruled by laws designed to assist all of us on a path of
life defined by personal freedom, individuality, and pursuit of the limitless
American entrepreneurial spirit. This was, is, and always shall be the
American way.
This is what the immortalizing monuments symbolize erected throughout our
history at places like Bunker Hill and Yorktown, Shilo and Gettysburg, Tripoli
and San Juan Hill, Verdun, Saint Lo, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, South Korea and
Vietnam.
Truly, the hallowed names on this wall of honor define this wall as our
freedom rent receipt written in blood for the duty paid for all
of our lives, so that we may go on in liberty with the God given blessings
to aspire to whatever limits our own imaginations lead us toward as we walk our
path of life.
As long as there have been, are, and will be, those that have paid our rent IN
FULL, we will go on. Freedom will flourish, and liberty will thrive because as
Americans it is our nature to lead from the front. We teach the world by
example. And Sacrifice.
The thoughts expressed by Tom Hank’s character, Captain John Miller in
the movie "Saving Private Ryan" echo loudly off this wall. He told
Private Ryan as he lay dying to "Earn this" – Earn It". He was speaking
to all of us, telling us to "make your lives worthy of the
this great sacrifice laid down by so many in the past, so that we might live
free to explore this encyclopedia of experience while reveling in all of life’s
glory, wonderment, and beauty.
Living the best life a person can,
is all that anyone can ever try to do in the end - - - and when we do, we enrich
our own lives and the lives of those we touch as we travel along our path
of life. To die for long-term preservation of the ideals of liberty and
freedom in American society and in other societies throughout the
world is, quite simply, something worth dying for.
Our American society is not an entity, which does or can exist independently of
American citizens - and American society cannot have any value if the citizens
do not, as individuals, have value. It is only through the value of each and
every human being that a society achieves value itself. The names on this wall
have THE HIGHEST VALUE. We are blessed, indeed, to be members of the most
valuable society on earth because of the sacrifice of good men and women dying
in the line of duty for freedom’s sake as they paid our rent.
Thank You and God Bless.
Address delivered at the traveling Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall - Sunday,
November 03, 2002 - 11:00 AM by Jeffrey Alan Foss - Lantana, Florida
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