Memorial Day Proclamation: President Ronald Reagan, 1987
Reflecting on President Reagan’s Words this Memorial Day
In this solemn proclamation by Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, he eloquently underscores the debt of gratitude our nation owes to the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom. Recognizing their heroic patriotism, the proclamation not only invites us to honor their memory, but also challenges each of us to unite in prayer.
A Selection from President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 Memorial Day Proclamation
May 21, 1987
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Any American who has ever listened to a bugler sound Taps, the last salute, whether on a green and grassy hillside, a muddy field halfway around the world, or a lonely tarmac stateside or anywhere freedom is cherished and defended, knows exactly why we set aside a special day each year to honor those who have died for our country and to pray for permanent peace.
We do so for the sons and daughters of our land who have perished in the cause of liberty, country, and peace, the cause that has called Americans from generation to generation. We do so for the Nation that was home to these heroes and heroines, the Nation that gave them their birthright of freedom. We do so for the sacred trust they have left us, to revere, defend, and preserve all that they have revered, defended, and preserved for us.
And we pray for our dead; we ask God to bless them and take them to Himself and reward their patriot's love. We pray for those who gave their lives in the hope of a future of freedom and peace for their countrymen. We pray for peace and for the devotion and strength of soul to build it and to protect it always. We pray and we resolve to keep holy the memory of those who have died for our country and to make their cause inseparably our own. We pray and we promise, so that one day Taps will sound never again for the young and the brave and the good.
[…]
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 1987, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour begining in each locality at eleven o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in prayer.
[…]
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Indpendence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.
Ronald Reagan,
President of the United States, 1981-1989
