America's Promise: It Takes The Best of Us To Keep It

When I was teaching at West Point I took a group of cadets to Normandy to study the battlefields of World War II. We stopped at the US military cemetery on the bluffs overlooking ” bloody ” Omaha Beach. As we walked the row after row marked by crosses or the Star of David, you could not help but to notice the markings—“Private-Infantry,” “Private-Infantry,” “Private-Infantry,” “Private-Infantry”…..

There is no more powerful reminder of the price of freedom and who bears the cost.

This an exceptional nation–framed by a true understanding of human nature–that men and women are capable of monumental feats; that the human spirit unchained is the greatest force for peace and prosperity–but there is also and always will be evil in the world. Free peoples are also the best guarantor of freedom.

This days marks the promise of mankind’s best hope.

It is also worth remembering that it takes the best of the best of us to keep the promise.