This is footage from July of 1938: a newsreel of the reunion of the last survivors of Gettysburg. On this occasion, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the Eternal Flame at Gettysburg, made of Maine granite and Alabama limestone.
The music is perfect accompaniment and very moving.
This newsreel is about continuity, gallantry, reflection and hard-won wisdom. At the end, FDR has a voice-over: "All men are created equal." Yes. And in unity is strength.
Thank you to all our military personnel, past and present, living or dead, prosperous, homeless, in serenity or in travail. For those in travail, may your burdens be lifted by hands at home and abroad, in the sky or here on earth.
For those that died in war, may we remember that you were human and petty sometimes, and that you had desires and needs that were not met and not allowed to flourish. That you sacrificed much of your liberty, at least some of your happiness, and then your life for this nation.
May your deeds and your memory, in both great and small things, burn in us forever.
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