Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning. It is an honor to be together as we pay our respects and remember our nation’s fallen soldiers. I want to thank Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Association President Commander Peter Galasinao and the organizers who put on this event each year.
I also want to thank Commander Thomas Duffy, today’s keynote speaker, for your service and scholarship. Most of all, thank you to the members of our Armed Forces, veterans, veteran organizations, the military and the Gold Star families here.
To the Gold Star families, in particular: While our city and our nation pauses today to remember those we have lost, I know that your grief endures every day. I’m honored to be alongside you.
I grew up not far from here in Morningside Heights. I have spent many hours in this park, passing by this monument on the way to school or gazing up at its grand columns as the sun sets pink through the trees.
New York City is home to many towering, larger-than-life monuments — yet this one stands apart. One feels a significance, a solemnity in its grandeur. The inscription on the exterior colonnade reminds us why. It reads: “To the memory of the Brave Soldiers and Sailors Who Saved the Union.”
One hundred and twenty-four years ago, in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt led the dedication ceremony for the Soldiers and Sailors monument that included a parade of Union Army veterans. Thirty-six years had passed since the end of the Civil War. No doubt many of them were old men, hobbled and aching as they walked Riverside Drive. I cannot help but think of the satisfaction they must have felt on that Dedication Day.
To have made great sacrifices in the fight for the abolition of slavery, an outcome that was by no means guaranteed, and to have won it not only for themselves — but for their children and grandchildren. Decades later, civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph would put it this way: “Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.” Those veterans knew that winning dignity comes with a great many costs: injury, wounds that never heal, and the death of many good men. Gathered on Riverside Drive that day in 1902 were no doubt many families of fallen soldiers — just as there are here today.
I think of the straight line between those who stood here then and those who stand here now, at this very moment. The pain you each intimately know, despite the gap of generations. Yet sorrow is not the only thing you share — you also know a rare kind of pride. Pride for a loved one who sacrificed everything. Pride for a person who answered a call few are brave enough to heed, and who chose service because they believed in something greater than themselves.
While Memorial Day lasts just 24 hours in a whole year, I know many here honor those lost every day — not only by keeping their memory alive, but by striving to live with the same courage and conviction as those we remember today. This year will mark 250 years since our forebears signed the Declaration of Independence.
As we commemorate that anniversary, let us honor the memory of the many working men and women throughout our history who enlisted in the military and paid the ultimate price. Let us commit to fighting for dignity for all. That pursuit of dignity becomes all the more important when we consider that in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, so many veterans must live with food insecurity, homelessness and social isolation. Our City Hall refuses to accept that status quo.
That is why we will use every lever of government to ensure all people can afford the basics of a decent life: groceries, rent and childcare. That is the very least our veterans deserve. And it is how we can pay tribute to those we have lost, by striving — just as they did — to reach a higher ideal.
Thank you, again, to the families and veterans here for your sacrifice. It’s a privilege to mark Memorial Day alongside you.
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