Full Text of HR0404 97th General Assembly
HR0404 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, In accordance with the established tradition of | 3 | | the Illinois House of Representatives, it is fitting that, in | 4 | | observance of Memorial Day, we honor our brothers and sisters | 5 | | who have given their lives in service to our country as the | 6 | | guardians of our long-held freedoms; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, This Memorial Day, we give added reverence in | 8 | | marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American | 9 | | Civil War and reflect on those long-forgotten ancestors who | 10 | | fought so valiantly over four long years between 1861 and 1865 | 11 | | in that great struggle to make our country truly whole and | 12 | | truly free; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, No better words have been written to honor those | 14 | | brave souls who were sacrificed long ago or pay tribute to the | 15 | | those brave men and women of today who have continued that | 16 | | fight for freedom than the Gettysburg Address; let us now | 17 | | recite those words so humbly said by our 16th President, | 18 | | Abraham Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers | 19 | | brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in | 20 | | Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are | 21 | | created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing | 22 | | whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so | 23 | | dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield |
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| 1 | | of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, | 2 | | as a final resting place for those who have gave their lives | 3 | | that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and | 4 | | proper that we should do this. But, in the larger sense, we can | 5 | | not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we cannot hallow - this | 6 | | ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, | 7 | | have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or | 8 | | detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we | 9 | | say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for | 10 | | us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished | 11 | | work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly | 12 | | advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great | 13 | | task remaining before us - that from those honored dead we take | 14 | | increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last | 15 | | full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that | 16 | | these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, | 17 | | under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that | 18 | | government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall | 19 | | not perish from the earth."; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Those words from long ago still speak to those | 21 | | brave men and women of today who we now honor; it is all | 22 | | together fitting and appropriate that we, with heavy hearts, | 23 | | again accept the honor of reading the Roll Call of those | 24 | | American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from the State | 25 | | of Illinois who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the |
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| 1 | | preceding year since the previous tribute; therefore, be it
| 2 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 3 | | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 4 | | a copy of this resolution and a copy of the ceremonial honor | 5 | | roll and program of the May 25, 2011 reading of names be | 6 | | presented to the families of these fallen heroes.
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