Cord Byrd: “this coming Monday, Americans across the Nation will hang flags at their doors and place small flags and flowers on the…”

“this coming Monday, Americans across the Nation will hang flags at their doors and place small flags and flowers on the gravesites of loved ones and soldiers in a tradition that stretches deep into history, perhaps back to the advent of warfare. The selection of the last Monday in May is unique to the United States, but remembering and honoring those fallen in battle is deeply ingrained in the human heart. On this day, these sons and fathers, uncles and brothers and, more recently, daughters and mothers, aunts and nieces are family members to us all. Lost to us too early, their images remain frozen in time, young faces trying to look stern in crisp uniforms. Their sacrifices on battlefields from the Argonne to Tripoli, Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima, Porkchop Hill to Hamburger Hill, Kabul to Baghdad have kept the Nation safe and carried the American ideals of liberty and democracy across the surface of the globe. This week, as the Senate struggled and ultimately overcame an arcane but fundamental challenge to our constitutional system of checks and balances, we have, I believe, honored the memory of all of those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. They defended the Nation and the Constitution from without; a bipartisan group of Senators this week defended it from within, thank God. I rejoice that 14 Senators could rise above partisan politics to understand and preserve the carefully crafted balance of powers inscribed in our Constitution.…”