Mayor Dobies: 2019 Memorial Day Address

Hello everyone and thank you for having me here today.

I’m Derek Dobies and I’m the mayor of Jackson. I’m here today to present a proclamation from the city declaring today as Memorial Day in Jackson.

Today we take time to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in defending our country in the armed services.

The roots of Memorial Day trace back to the end of the Civil War, when people wanted to pay tribute to those who fought to defend the union.

Jackson has a special place in Michigan‘s history of the Civil War — and Mount Evergreen cemetery here in particular: it’s the final resting place of our Civil War Governor, Austin Blair.

And we’re the final resting place to civil war veterans, World War I and II veterans, the home to Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans.

Today, we are asked to stop and remind ourselves that which they died protecting — so that their deaths may never be in vain.

For generations, Jacksonians have fought to defend this nation from threats — both foreign and domestic; to save the union, to fight fascism, communism and to stand against injustice wherever it exists.

Some died in that endeavor. Laying down their lives, so that their country may stand up to our highest values: tolerance and inclusion, fairness and justice, freedom and liberty.

But today we find those values challenged immeasurably:

• When white supremacists openly walk the streets, neo-nazis organize in our cities, and hate and intolerance spreads across America
• When families flee violence abroad, and children die, just trying to get into a land of immigrants for a chance at better opportunity
• When a free press is constantly attacked and bullied, and our freedoms to negotiate for better wages, safer environment; and better healthcare are threatened.

When we see this, we know that’s not the America our veterans died for. We feel something is wrong. We know it’s time to act.

And those we honor today remind us how to act.

You see, those who fell on the battlefield also understood the resiliency of our republic, and the power that they fought for — that system they swore to protect — popular sovereignty — the most fundamental notion that we hold the power to shape our own government and control our own destiny. The ability when we see wrongs, to have the power to change them.

To truly honor those we memorialize here today, we must use that power and continue the fight — to build a better, more compassionate, tolerant, just and free country.

To show the world who we truly are, and speak decidedly and publicly when people undermine and erode that ideal.

To me, that’s what today means. The memories of those who sacrificed everything call on us to continue that fight.

Thank you.