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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, In accordance with the established tradition of | ||||||
| 3 | the Illinois House of Representatives, it is fitting that, in | ||||||
| 4 | observance of Memorial Day, we honor our brothers and sisters | ||||||
| 5 | who have given their lives in service to our country as the | ||||||
| 6 | guardians of our long-held freedoms; and
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| 7 | WHEREAS, No better words have been written to honor those | ||||||
| 8 | brave souls who were sacrificed long ago or pay tribute to the | ||||||
| 9 | those brave men and women of today who have continued that | ||||||
| 10 | fight for freedom than the Gettysburg Address; let us now | ||||||
| 11 | recite those words so humbly said by our 16th President, | ||||||
| 12 | Abraham Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers | ||||||
| 13 | brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in | ||||||
| 14 | Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are | ||||||
| 15 | created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing | ||||||
| 16 | whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so | ||||||
| 17 | dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield | ||||||
| 18 | of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, | ||||||
| 19 | as a final resting place for those who have gave their lives | ||||||
| 20 | that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and | ||||||
| 21 | proper that we should do this. But, in the larger sense, we can | ||||||
| 22 | not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we cannot hallow - this | ||||||
| 23 | ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, | ||||||
| 24 | have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or | ||||||
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| 1 | detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we | ||||||
| 2 | say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for | ||||||
| 3 | us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished | ||||||
| 4 | work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly | ||||||
| 5 | advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great | ||||||
| 6 | task remaining before us - that from those honored dead we take | ||||||
| 7 | increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last | ||||||
| 8 | full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that | ||||||
| 9 | these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, | ||||||
| 10 | under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that | ||||||
| 11 | government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall | ||||||
| 12 | not perish from the earth."; and
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| 13 | WHEREAS, Those words from long ago still speak to those | ||||||
| 14 | brave men and women of today who we now honor; it is all | ||||||
| 15 | together fitting and appropriate that we, with heavy hearts, | ||||||
| 16 | again accept the honor of reading the Roll Call of those | ||||||
| 17 | American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines from the State | ||||||
| 18 | of Illinois who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the | ||||||
| 19 | preceding year since the previous tribute; therefore, be it
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| 20 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 21 | NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 22 | a copy of this resolution and a copy of the ceremonial honor | ||||||
| 23 | roll and program of the May 23, 2012 reading of names be | ||||||
| 24 | presented to the families of these fallen heroes.
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