Good morning and thank you. It is an honor to be here before you today, and to represent Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church at this important Memorial Day Remembrance of our fallen heroes.  

I would like to say a personal Thank you to all you who have served this great country. Thank you to all the family members who have sacrificed so that their loved ones could serve, and especially thank you to all who we honor today, who gave their life in the service of our country. I have been very blessed in my life. Blessed by God through the love and the actions of many, many people. In addition to my wonderful family and friends, my life has been made possible by the service and sacrifice of the veterans we remember and honor today. I am, as all of us are, blessed by the opportunity to live in this great country. And that opportunity exists only because of the sacrifice made by these great men and women who gave their lives for us. They sacrificed to give all of us our freedom and our rights. They sacrificed so that all of us, whether we’re Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, Muslim, agnostic or atheist, whatever our beliefs are, we can freely follow them, and gather here today as one community to honor their legacy.

This morning as I looked at the news on my phone, I came across these eloquent words delivered by President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address in 1863 “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did . . . It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Nisei Vets who served in WWII dealt with injustices and prejudices that are almost unimaginable to the sansei and yonsei generations. Yet they volunteered, most of them directly from imprisonment in camp. Even though they dealt with such terrible injustice from their own government, they volunteered to fight for this country out of a sense of duty and honor driven by a love for this country and what it could be. And out of a love for their family, their friends, their community and the world.

While I have faced instances of prejudice, what little I have faced in my life is nothing compared to what the Issei and Nisei experienced. This great life that many in my Sansei generation have enjoyed, is a direct legacy of the sacrifice of those we honor today. They gave their lives to provide a better life for their families and their communities, and we have all been beneficiaries. But lately, we’ve seen and experienced renewed prejudices. The instances of AAPI hate, the hate driven rhetoric that has become too normalized across the country, the divisiveness that pervades so much of our society – they all threaten to destroy our great country. So, at this time, it’s especially important to remember what these fallen warriors were fighting for. We need to honor our fallen veterans, and we need to help ensure this country delivers on the promise of “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and Justice for all”.

To deliver on this promise, we need to love more. We need to be willing to sacrifice for our neighbors. In this time of great division within our country – a time of war in the middle east and in Ukraine, of political, ethnic, sexual and religious oppression in a growing number of countries, we need to love more, talk more, listen more, understand more instead of hating and fighting more. Be kind, be gracious, help each other out. We need be better at making peace, so that we don’t lose more brave souls to war. Let us move our great country forward. Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself”. Whether you believe in God or not, I ask that you take these words to heart. When we go from here, let us make sure our actions uphold and further the legacy of those we honor today.