Medal of Honor Plaza dedication

With "The Wall" coming to Cheshire this October, I thought I'd offer my dad's comments from the dedication ceremony for the town's Medal of Honor Plaza, delivered April 25, 1998:

The theme of this gathering is patriotism. When we initiated the Medal of Honor Plaza project in 1995, we wanted to elevate the public expression of patriotism in town so that the great sacrifice which so many people have made for the freedom we enjoy is remembered and understood.

This plaza and these trees of the Living Classroom are visible reminders of the fact that freedom is not free. In this world of tyrants and stealthy forces hostile to liberty, to be born free is a great privilege, but to die free is a great responsibility.

These seedlings come from historic trees: a Valley Forge river birch, a locust from the Gettysburg Battlefield when Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, our state's Charter Oak, a maple from George Washington's Delaware River crossing, a sycamore from Mt. Vernon and an oak from Nathan Hale's home here in Connecticut. They signify great events, great Americans and great battlefields.

Last weekend I went to the battlefields at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. It was a deeply moving experience to reflect on those patriots who were faithful to liberty, even unto death. On the 18th of April in 1775, Paul Revere rode from Boston through Lexington and on to Concord to warn his countrymen that the King's soldiers were coming to seize their arms and ammunition for daring to protest taxation without representation and other abuses by the crown. Hundreds of the best trained, best armed soldiers in the world were marching to put down a rebellion against tyranny by simple farmers and merchants.

Lexington is the birthplace of American liberty; that is where the first shots of our War for Independence were fired. Eight colonists died there in an unorganized skirmish against Britain's military might. The British troops then marched on to Concord. There the colonists' resistance became organized as hundreds of hastily assembled Minutemen militia gathered by the North bridge to engage the British. There they fired the shot heard round the world. Two months later, at Bunker Hill, in the first major battle of the war, the colonists showed such courage and determination that the British finally knew the rebellion would not stop.

The theme of this gathering is patriotism. But what is patriotism? The easy answer is: Patriotism is love of country. But why should we love America? What did those Yankee rebels and their comrades in arms of later generations (such as Eri Woodbury, Harvey Barnum and the veterans whose names are on these bricks) do for us? What is our country, really, that we should love it?

America is the fortress of freedom and the land of opportunity for all. It was the first nation in history founded on spiritual principles. Those principles declare that all people are created equal and that we are endowed by God with the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thanks to the wisdom, courage and sacrifice of the Signers of the Declaration and the Framers of the Constitution, America has contributed more to the betterment of ordinary people than any other political body in history.

Patriotism recognizes that and honors America in thought, word and deed. The War for Independence which founded our nation is over, but the American Revolution continues because it is a spiritual revolution of global dimensions. That revolution is the proclamation of liberty and unalienable rights for all, derived from God and ensured through government of the people, by the people and for the people.

America is an experiment in human living a magnificent experiment. But it is an unfinished experiment and will not be completed until the entire human race enjoys the blessings of liberty we Americans now have. As a nation, we can so shine our light into the darkness of oppression, poverty, ignorance and fear that freedom is proclaimed throughout the world and the blessings of liberty are extended to all people. And then we would truly have a world at peace, a world without need for armies. That is the age-old dream of humanity. It is also the promise of America. This plaza and Living Classroom honor the courage and sacrifice of those brave men and women who preserved our freedom; it also honors the essence of America because freedom is the future of the world.

Through the grace of God and our own renewed commitment to patriotism, all the world will someday know that truth, the truth which makes us free, and then that age-old dream will be realized.

John White