A Memorial Day Message from Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan
This Memorial Holiday weekend you and I will enjoy many privileges and freedoms.
We will travel freely throughout the state or perhaps to another state. We may go to a concert to hear the band of your choice. Many of us will go to church to worship God as we see fit. Some of us will go to parades in your community; and others will go shopping and have at our disposal variety of goods and services found almost nowhere else in the world. Many of us will freely assemble in a park or a stadium or just enjoy the quiet of our backyards. Some of us will log on to the internet, read a variety of news reports offering differing opinions and some of us will leave our opinions, critical or in favor of a government action or elected leader.
These things we routinely do as Americans, but we seldom think of how fortunate we are to have these privileges. This weekend offers us a poignant reminder that our personal and political freedom was paid for by men and women who gave their lives in defense of liberty and in the face of tyrants. It’s a time of solemn remembrance and a reminder that the price of liberty is often very high.
As the listing below illustrates, since World War Two well in excess of 500,000 American military men and women died in the service of our country.
Their willingness to pay the ultimate price has not only preserved freedom here and abroad, but has sent a signal throughout the world to dictators, terrorists and zealots that Americans will fight and die for a just cause no matter how far from our shores.
I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend to its fullest, but I also hope that you take just a few minutes to remember those who paid the ultimate price and thank their families, so you and I can enjoy our personal freedom and political liberty.
U.S. MILITARY CASUALTIES SINCE WORLD WAR II
World War II – 407,316
Korean War 1950-1953 – 36,516
Vietnam War 1955-1975 – 58,209
Afghanistan (ongoing) – 3,395
Iraq – 4,804
Persian Gulf War 1990-1991 – 258
These figures do not count the military men and women that have died in numerous other conflicts such as Bosnia, Somalia and Beirut – But they are remembered here.
Yours in Freedom and Remembrance,