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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, In accordance with the established Memorial Day
3tradition of the Illinois House of Representatives, it is
4fitting that we honor our brothers and sisters who have given
5their lives in service to our country as the guardians of our
6long-held freedoms; and
 
7    WHEREAS, To honor those brave souls who were sacrificed
8long ago or to pay tribute to the those brave men and women of
9today who have continued that fight for freedom, no better
10words have been written than the Gettysburg Address; let us
11now recite those words so humbly said by our 16th President,
12Abraham Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers
13brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in
14Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
15created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
16whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
17dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield
18of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
19as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
20that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
21proper that we should do this. But, in the larger sense, we can
22not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we cannot hallow - this
23ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
24have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or

 

 

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1detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we
2say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for
3us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
4work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
5advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
6task remaining before us - that from those honored dead we take
7increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last
8full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that
9these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation,
10under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that
11government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
12not perish from the earth."; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Those words from long ago still speak to the
14sacrifice of the brave men and women whom we now honor; it is
15all together fitting and appropriate that we, with heavy
16hearts, again accept the honor of reading the Roll Call of
17those American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from the
18State of Illinois who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the
19preceding years since the previous tribute; therefore, be it
 
20    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
21HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
22a copy of this resolution be presented to the families of the
23fallen heroes honored on May 29, 2021.