Emotional President Biden Remembers Fallen Troops, Son, At Memorial Day
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – A visibly emotional U.S. President Joe Biden, whose late son was an army veteran, has honored America’s many war dead at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, praising those who sacrificed their lives for the pursuit of freedom, “the soul of America.”
His visit to the famed cemetery where some 400,000 are buried in the gentle hills and hollows came as the nation slowly reopens after a year of coronavirus lockdowns and divisions.
Biden used his first Memorial Day commemorations as president to invoke the iconic battles of history and joined them to the present. He urged Americans to rise above the divisions that he said were straining the union.
The president was joined Monday by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff in a somber ceremony at the Virginia cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The site is dedicated to deceased service members whose remains have not been identified.
A teary-eyed Biden walked up to the wreath, cupping it in his hands in silent reflection, then making the sign of the cross.
He had earlier recalled his son Beau Biden on the sixth anniversary of his death in a Memorial Day service on Sunday. “Beau didn’t die in the line of duty, but he was serving a Delaware National Guard unit in Iraq for a year. That was one of the proudest things he did in his life,” Biden said during the speech at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.
PAYING RESPECTS
The president said if Beau were here, “he would be here as well, paying his respects to all those who gave so much for our country.”
Biden added: “A lot of time passes, but you all know as well as I do that the moment that we celebrate it is the toughest day of the year. We’re honored, but it’s a tough day. Brings back everything. So I can’t thank you enough for your continued service to the country.”
He thanked military families who have lost loved ones in the line of service. Biden had a similar message on Monday when speaking at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
And he urged Americans to commemorate their fallen heroes by remembering their fight for the nation’s ideals. “This nation was built on an idea,” Biden said. “We were built on an idea, the idea of liberty and opportunity for all. We’ve never fully realized that aspiration of our founders, but every generation has opened the door a little wider.”
He focused much of his speech on the importance of democracy, saying it thrives when citizens can vote, when there is a free press and when there are equal rights for all.
AMERICA’S SOUL
Critics say, however, that social media giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter have colluded with Biden supporters to stifle conservative and Christian voices.
Biden claimed, however, that “the soul of America is animated by the perennial battle between our worst instincts, which we’ve seen of late, and our better angels.”
Without directly naming his predecessor Donald J. Trump’s “America First” policies, Biden complained there was a battle “Between Me First and We the People. Between greed and generosity, cruelty and kindness, captivity and freedom.”
He noted that “Generation after generation of American heroes are signed up to be part of the fight because they understand the truth that lives in every American heart: that liberation, opportunity, justice are far more likely to come to pass in a democracy than in an autocracy.”
Biden stressed: “These Americans weren’t fighting for dictators; they were fighting for democracy. They weren’t fighting to exclude or to enslave, they were fighting to build and broaden and liberate.”
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