On Memorial Day 2025, Rye City Judge Valerie A. Livingston delivered the principal address to the crowd assembled on the Rye village green. She became Rye City’s first female judge in 2020 and became the full-time judge in 2023. She has lived in Rye since 1992.
Here is a video and copy of Livingston’s speech.
Thank you, Commander De Barros, for inviting me to speak here today and thank you Mayor Cohn, Congressman Latimer, State Senator Mayer, and State Assemblyman Otis for sharing the podium with me.
To some, Memorial Day serves only to kick off the summer. With a day off from work we hold barbecues and spend time with our family and friends. And that’s great!
But as all of you who have gathered here today know, Memorial Day is much more than backyard barbecues. 70 years ago, almost to the day, President Dwight D Eisenhower, proclaimed “Memorial Day, Monday, the 30th of May 1955, [to be] a day of nationwide prayer for permanent peace.”
At that time, the Korean War was over and a mere ten years had passed since the end of World War II. And as supreme commander of the allied expeditionary forces in World War II as well as the architect and planner of Operation Torch in North Africa in 1943 and the invasion of Normandy in 1944, no president since President Lincoln was more keenly aware of the tremendous toll that war takes on families in U.S. cities, towns, and villages just like Rye.
So when President Eisenhower inaugurated Monday May 30, 1955, as Memorial Day, a day of nationwide prayer for permanent peace, the memories of WWII were seared into the collective consciousness of our citizenry. The unfortunate reality, however, was that peace time was not going to be permanent owing to the subsequent spread of foreign threats such communism and terrorism.
Resultingly, since his proclamation in 1955 American soldiers have fought and died in multiple wars and conflicts in Viet Nam, Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.
In 2009, President Obama, acknowledging the continuing dedication to our country’s armed forces, observed:
“What is this sense of duty? What tugs at a person until he or she says, “Send me”? Why in an age when so many have acted only pursuit of the narrowest self-interest, have the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines of this generation volunteered all that they have on behalf of others? Why have they been willing to bear the heaviest burden?
Whatever it is, they felt some tug; they answered a call; they said, “I’ll go.” That is why they are the best of America, and that is what separates them from those who’ve not served in uniform: Their extraordinary willingness to risk their lives for people they never met.”
Here in Rye, on this last Monday in May 2025 and all across our great country, we gather to remember all of our fallen heroes with our Memorial Day parade down Purchase Street, and with the guidance of American Legion Post 128, with this ceremony. And may I just say how wonderful it is that our children are here to bear witness, to remember, and hopefully, to teach their children about this special day.
When I was invited to speak at this gathering, I was honored but at the same time daunted. What can I, a person who has no military experience, who fought in no battles and who lost no loved ones in war, say that has not been said by many more eloquent speakers? But soon that thought gave way to another. Isn’t that why we are all here today? Are we not all here today because we care? We care about the sacrifices of our family members and fellow citizens. So, it matters, in truth, it matters very much that those of us who have not been at war or who have never worn a military uniform come here to remember.
And what can we remember about our fallen heroes? In a short while, Terry McCartney will read the Roll of Honor. He will tell you who fought and who died from our own beloved city. He may even tell you where they lived.
Simply put, we are gathered here today so that we can remember their sacrifices and celebrate the fact that throughout our nation’s history, this great country produces such men and women of honor.
We must not forget them.
To quote Lenore Hetrick’s poem entitled, “Our Memories”,
“If we remember those who are gone
Then they live again.
They are here once more, they smile and speak,
Just as do living men.”
In closing I thank you for being here and for remembering our all of fallen heroes, for in doing so, “they live again.”
