Daily Archives: May 28, 2012

Sometimes, the original sentiment of a holiday can get lost.

In today's case, the true meaning of Memorial Day might get burried in, say, the the excitement of the year's first beach trip, a delectable BBQ or an enticing super sale. There's no shame in enjoying the three-day weekend. But, to make sure to enjoy it for all it's worth, we think it's important to focus on the deeper meanings: freedom and remembrance. Do take a moment this holiday weekend to honor our country.

We've put together a few quotes to help evoke gratefulness for the freedom we are so blessed to have.

What do you do to celebrate our freedom and remember those who fought to honor it?

"Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth." -George Washington

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." -The Wonder Years

"What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us." -Helen Keller

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." -Thomas Campbell

"Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy." -Eskimo Legend

"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." -Rossiter W. Raymond

Go here to see the original:
Let Freedom Ring: Inspirational Memorial Day Quotes

SARASOTA NATIONAL CEMETERY -- They trekked with focus and resolve to these emerald fields lined with marble headstones on a fiery hot Sunday afternoon.

Undeterred by the heat, they came, like pilgrims on a mission, carrying flowers, like Bradenton's Geraldine Schule, 80, to place on a grave site, in her case, the grave of her beloved husband, Bradenton's Rodney W. Schule, who had served in the U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine.

They came, like Rich and Mare Muno of Venice, to honor their neighbor, James Orr of the U.S. Air Force, who was laid to rest here on Clark Road two years ago.

They came, like Bradenton's Stefenie Hernandez and 14 others in her family, to lay a wreath during a special Memorial Day moment here in honor of Hernandez's son, Spc. 4 Patrick Lay, who died in Afghanistan on Aug. 11, 2011.

And, they came from Tallahassee, in a convoy of black vehicles containing Gov. Rick Scott and his wife, Ann, both of whom walked with the pilgrims, hugging many, including those in the Hernandez family and the Schule family.

Ann and Rick Scott later said they understand the desire many have to be a freedom pilgrim and come to a place like Sarasota National Cemetery on Memorial Day weekend, a time set aside to honor those who gave their lives for their country.

"You can't know what it feels like unless you have lost a family member in the service of his or her country," a humble Scott, the keynote speaker, said during a 45-minute Memorial Day ceremony attended by about 400 under a tent here.

Scott's father was in the 82nd Airborne during World War II and he himself served in the U.S. Navy.

Jets forge an unforgettable moment

At about 1:40 p.m., just after U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Bradenton, was being introduced to speak, four F-16s from the 482nd Fighter Wing at Homestead Air Force base roared in formation over the tent.

Read more:
Freedom 'pilgrims' come to honor those who sacrificed

Culture Challenge of the Week: Conscience Coerced

The liberal machine known as the Obama administration continues to accuse the Republican Party and conservatives in general of waging a war on women. Its a nonsense claim, and women arent buying it.

It is, however, a convenient smoke screen blurring the largest assault on religious freedom in decades.

The controversy swirling around the mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services, which forces religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs for their employees, escalated this past week.

This time, its the good guys on the offensive.

In 12 courts, 43 Catholic institutions have filed suit against the Obama administration and its agencies, asserting that the contraceptive mandate violates the religious freedom of faith-based institutions.

In a statement explaining why the University of Notre Dame has joined the lawsuits, the universitys president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, put the issue simply: The case is about the freedom of a religious organization to live its mission, and its significance goes well beyond any debate about contraceptives.

Dont miss this point: The free-exercise clause is about living our religious beliefs, not just about how we worship. It protects our ability to integrate our faith into what we say and what we do in the public square, not just within our churches, synagogues or mosques.

The Obama administration long has attempted to recast religious freedom as mere freedom to worship. Why? Because to the left, religion (and Judeo-Christian morality) is sort of like secondhand smoke some people like it, but on the whole, it harms society so it must be banned from public spaces and limited to restricted areas (churches, temples and mosques).

The troublesome First Amendment right to free exercise of religion, then, becomes mere freedom of worship. And so, outside of their houses of worship, religious believers would have no right to free exercise and therefore no right of conscientious objection.

Read the original:
HAGELIN: Religious freedom is real issue of mandate