Mayoral Musings: 'Memorial Day is not only about remembering what was lost — it is about preserving what was won'

Below is my Memorial Day 2025 speech, reprinted here for readers:

Good morning, Lansdale. As your Mayor, it is my honor to welcome you—our veterans, Gold Star families, service organizations, clergy, and every neighbor who has joined us today—to this Memorial Day observance. We gather here on our town green, beneath the waving flags, surrounded by friends and community members, to remember those from Lansdale and across our nation who gave their last full measure of devotion in service to something greater than themselves.

Today, we gather to lay flowers and stand in silence. We listen as bugles play and flags are lowered. But Memorial Day is more than a date on the calendar—more than the kickoff to a summer weekend or a chance to fire up the grill. Memorial Day is a call to remember, yes—but it is also a call to act. It is a reminder that the freedoms we cherish were paid for in full with the lives of young men and women who believed in a promise of a more just and peaceful world.

At its best, America is the story of ordinary people who answered an extraordinary call—citizens who, when liberty was threatened, rose up to defend it. They believed not only in the idea of freedom but in the responsibility of citizenship: that in a democracy, each of us has a role to play, each of us has a duty to undertake. And even as our nation has grown and changed, that responsibility remains.

Right now, in communities like ours and in cities across the nation, we face new challenges that test what our veterans died to protect. We hear debates about civil liberties: What does it mean to be safe and free? We hear questions about due process: How do we ensure that every person is treated fairly under the law? We hear concerns about citizenship: Who belongs, and who is welcomed into this American experiment? These are not abstract arguments. They are the issues that determine how we treat our neighbors. They determine whether our democracy lives up to its promise.

The same spirit of service and sacrifice that led our fathers and mothers to fight on distant battlefields must now guide us here at home. It is not enough to say, “I honor the fallen.” We must also say, “I will do my part.” And doing our part means standing up for the civil liberties that bind us together: freedom of speech for the quiet voice and the passionate voice; freedom of religion for the worshiper and the person of no faith at all; freedom to privacy, so our families can raise our children and grow old without fear of unwarranted intrusion.

So, as we stand together and listen to the names read aloud—names of young men and women from Lansdale who never returned home—it is fitting that we bow our heads in respect. But let us also lift up our eyes and raise our voices in commitment. Let us recommit ourselves to the work of perfecting our union. Let us recommit to a kind of patriotism that does not seek to divide but to unite; a patriotism that does not so much look backward with longing as it looks forward with resolve.

Because Memorial Day is not only about remembering what was lost—it is about preserving what was won. It is about honoring the sacrifice of every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman, and National Guardsman who laid down their lives for us. We honor them not with parades alone, but with a renewed dedication to the values they defended—values that ask us to extend a hand to the stranger, to speak for the voiceless, to believe that our democracy can be more perfect, can be more inclusive, can be more just.

So today, let us place our flowers and fold our flags. And as the bugle fades and the last note drifts into the sky, let us leave this place with a determination not only to remember, but to act; not only to reflect, but to carry on; not only to recollect their sacrifice, but to rededicate ourselves to the promise they held in their hearts.

May God bless the memory of the fallen and each of us with the courage to serve.

(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert. The views expressed are his own and are not representative of North Penn Now or Lansdale Borough.)