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Editor's note: Wounded three times in the Civil War while serving with the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. went on to become a justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and a U.S. Supreme Court justice. On May 30, 1884, Holmes, while serving on the Massachusetts court, gave what is considered one of the most memorable Memorial Day speeches ever. He was addressing the John Sedgwick Post No. 4, Grand Army of the Republic, in Keene, N.H. The following are excerpts from that speech.
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This is Memorial Day, when many of us will spend time with our families hanging out at the beach, having a picnic in the park or grilling in the backyard. Sometimes in all the fun, it's easy to forget why we have this weekend in the first place — because so many of the ones we love are not here to enjoy it.
Regarding "Countering Obama's attack on religion in our nation" (Our Views, May 25): I agree that the 43 Catholic institutions must prevail in federal court challenging the "must-cover contraception clause" in their health care plans, for it is a threat to religious liberty and many other liberties. This is dangerous overreach by the government. President Obama will continue pushing aside people of good will and all they do for everyone to get more government control over all people and organizations. Is this real democracy?
'Nothing but excuses'
On Memorial Day we are asked to honor all who have died fighting for their country in all wars.
"David Hockney," by Christopher Simon Sykes (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
Charles "Charlie" Banks has lived in Tampa since 1959, when Nick Nuccio was mayor and Hillsborough County had just under 400,000 residents. Charlie turned 94 this year but looks younger than he is. His mind is still sharp, and he's still interested in exploring new ideas in business, pondering politics and discussing ways to make the world better.
From an early age, Catholics are taught to see God in their neighbor. The Catholic faith finds its fullest expression in a loving act of sacrifice by one stranger for another. Imagine the church's surprise, then, to be told by the federal government that when a Catholic organization serves its neighbors, it isn't really practicing its religion.
A grave disservice
We cherish too, the Poppy red
It's comfortable living in a cocoon — associating only with those who share your views, reading journalism and watching news that only reinforces them, avoiding those on the other side of the cultural divide.
If Congress continues to do nothing, in January the whole economy will plunge off a cliff into recession.
"Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son," by Anne Lamott with Sam Lamott (Riverhead Books)
"A Wedding in Haiti," by Julia Alvarez (Algonquin Books)
After the U.S. housing crash began in 2007, the media often made comparisons with the Dutch tulip mania of 1637, one of the first and most dramatic speculative bubbles in the Western world.
Regarding "Relieved my daughter won't be a Gator" by Pierre Tristam (Views, May 24): I hope Little Sadie is also relieved to get her "visa out of Florida" for Iowa and put as much distance between herself and her bigoted ("Supposed business leaders and politicians would congratulate her") and condescending ("Floridians don't value eduction") and ungrateful father (he makes a living as an editor and publisher in Florida). I am neither a Gator — I'm a Green Wave — nor a football or baseball fan, but I have no reason to hold other people who do not hold my quirks in the contempt Tristam oozes.
I, too, sing America.
After social conservatives rallied to Pat Robertson in Iowa in 1988, and soon took over the formal structure of the Republican Party in many states, it rapidly became difficult to win a GOP nomination for anything higher than dog catcher without a perfect pro-life position. And yet the electoral implications beyond nomination politics haven't been particularly severe.
A few weeks ago an experienced paddleboarder set out from Fort DeSoto Park. He has not been seen since. His paddleboard with wallet, car keys and cellphone washed up near the mouth of the Manatee River.
The White House's arrogant demand that even Catholic institutions must cover contraception in their health care plans is a threat to religious liberty and illustrates the dangerous overreach of Obamacare.
'Real' classes vs. online
As if we don't have enough "Big Brother" intrusion into our lives today, the Obama regime is now set to "regulate" all commercial and municipal swimming pools by forcing the installment of elevators and robotic arms at all of these pools nationwide, which may also be forced to remove "accessibility barriers" by 2013.
Regarding "Routine prostate test gets thumbs down from panel" (Nation & World, May 22): Virginia Moyer, Baylor College of Medicine, is quoted as saying, "You don't need to detect all cancers." As a retired general surgeon with three years' post-graduate training in cancer surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute, New York, and who treated many forms of cancer for nearly 40 years in private practice, I can say with authority that her statement is diametrically opposed to all basic principles of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Amid the many messages you may be hearing about screening for prostate cancer, I hope these stand out most prominently: Science finds that there is at best a small potential benefit from prostate cancer screening, and there are substantial known harms. We need a better test, and we need better treatment options. We can do better.
Novelist John Grisham could hardly spin a more provocative fiction: The president and his surrogates mount an aggressive campaign to intimidate the chief justice of the United States, implying ruin and ridicule should he fail to vote in a pivotal case according to the ruling political party's wishes.
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