Legacy Matters"I honestly believe eulogies have significance. I believe they are some of the most important speeches I've ever given. I don't mean because they changed the face of the nation in any way, but because it's a very great responsibility to capture the spirit of an individual and what he or she meant to the world...
You can give comfort. You can give perspective. To be asked to give a eulogy is a great honor because you have the power to sum up a human life. I've always taken this power quite seriously."
Ronald Reagan in his book, Speaking My Mind.
I was so inspired by Fred Barnes piece The Gipper’s Eulogies, that I went to the Lexington library to pick up a copy of Speaking My Mind. Reagan chose to include eleven eulogies or remarks on the fallen. We can all learn how to write a eulogy from his. Here are some excerpts
1969. On Robert Taylor “Millions who only knew him by way of the silver screen …remember with gratitude that in the darkened theater he never embarrassed them in front of the children”
1981. On Anwar Sadat, “There are times, there are moments of history, when the martyrdom of a single life can symbolize all that’s wrong with an age and all that is right about humanity. The noble remnants of such lives – the spoken words of an Illinois lawyer who lived in this house, the diary of a young Dutch schoolgirl, the final moments of a soldier-statesman from Mit Abu el-Qum – can gain the force and power that endures and inspires and wins the ultimate triumph over the forces of violence, madness and hatred.”
1983. On Arland Williams, Jr. (In 1982, in a blinding snow storm, a plane crashed into the Fourteenth Street bridge and plunged into the icy Potomac river. We watched on TV as one unknown man repeatedly handed the line from the helicopter saving five lives in all. When the helicopter went back for him, he was no longer there). “All of us had to stand a little taller witnessing this heroic deed and knowing now the man who gets the credit…To his son and daughter, let me just say you can live with tremendous pride in your father.”
1987. On Edith Luckett Davis, his mother-in-law. “To paraphrase Winston Churchill, meeting her was ‘like opening a bottle of champagne’.”
1987. On Malcolm Baldridge. “The day I call Mac Baldridge to ask him to join the cabinet, I was told by Midge I would have to call back later. He was out on his horse roping and couldn’t come to the phone. Right then I knew he was the kind of man I wanted.”
1984. At Pointe du Hoc “The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest... [L]et us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for …Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.”
1984. At Omaha Beach. “Through the words of his loving daughter, who is here with us today, a D day veteran has shown us the meaning of this day far better than any president can. It is enough for us to say about Private Zanatta and all the men of honor and courage who fought beside him four decades ago: We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so that we may always be free”.
1985. For Members of the 101st Airborne Division. (In 1985, a plane full of soldiers returning home for the holidays crashed after refueling in Newfoundland) “Tragedy is nothing new to mankind, but somehow it’s always a surprise, never loses its power to astonish… [L]ove is never wasted; love is never lost. Love lives on and sees us through sorrow. From the moment love is born, it is always with us, keeping us aloft in the time of flooding, and strong in the time of trial….In life they were our heroes, in death our loved ones…They were happy and singing, and they were right: They were going home.... [T]he men and women of the great and fabled Screaming Eagles. They must be singing now, in their joy, flying higher that mere man can fly and as flights of angels take them to their rest.”
1987. For Crew Members of the USS Stark (in 1985, the USS Stark was mistakenly attacked by an Iraqi fighter jet while patrolling the Persian Gulf). “Today we know such great heartache. So, we come to this place to seek the simple assurance of each other and the hope of finding a higher meaning, a greater purpose….Would we not rather have them back, ordinary men again perhaps, but still ours to hold and keep? The answers are hard….The men of the USS Stark stood guard in the night…. The men of the USS Stark have protected us; they have done their duty. Now let us do ours”….
1983. On the Marines killed in a terrorist attack in Lebanon in 1983. “I received a message from the father of a marine in Lebanon. He told me, “In a world where we speak of human rights, there is a sad lack of acceptance of responsibility. My son has chosen the acceptance of responsibility for the privilege of living in this country” I will not ask you to pray for the dead, because they’re safe in God’s loving arms and beyond need of our prayers. I would like to ask you all ---wherever you may be in this blessed land – to pray for these wounded young men and to pray for the bereaved families of those who gave their lives for our freedom.”
1986. On the Challenger disaster. “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
Posted by Jill Fallon at June 10, 2004 7:36 PM | Permalink