Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2012

Proclamation 8831 of May 25, 2012

Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2012

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation endures and thrives because of the devotion
of our men and women in uniform, who, from generation
to generation, carry a burden heavier than any we may
ever know. On Memorial Day, we honor those who have
borne conflict's greatest cost, mourn where the wounds
of war are fresh, and pray for a just, lasting peace.

The American fabric is stitched with the stories of
sons and daughters who gave their lives in service to
the country they loved. They were patriots who
overthrew an empire and sparked revolution. They were
courageous men and women who strained to hold a young
Union together. They were ordinary citizens who rolled
back the creeping tide of tyranny, who stood post
through a long twilight struggle, who saw terror and
extremism threaten our world's security and said,
``I'll go.'' And though their stories are unique to the
challenges they faced, our fallen service members are
forever bound by a legacy of valor older than the
Republic itself. Now they lay at rest in quiet corners
of our country and the world, but they live on in the
families who loved them and in the soul of a Nation
that is safer for their service.

Today, we join together in prayer for the fallen. We
remember all who have borne the battle, whose devotion
to duty has sustained our country and kept safe our
heritage as a free people in a free society. Though our
hearts ache in their absence, we find comfort in
knowing that their legacy lives on in all of us--in the
security that lets us live in peace, the prosperity
that allows us to pursue our dreams, and the love that
still beats in those who knew them. May God bless the
souls of the venerable warriors we have lost, and may
He watch over the men and women who serve us now.
Today, tomorrow, and in perpetuity, let us give thanks
to them by remaining true to the values and virtues for
which they fight.

In honor of all of our fallen service members, the
Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 11, 1950,
as amended (36 U.S.C. 116), has requested the President
issue a proclamation calling on the people of the
United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of
prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on
that day when the people of the United States might
unite in prayer. The Congress, by Public Law 106-579,
has also designated 3:00 p.m. local time on that day as
a time for all Americans to observe, in their own way,
the National Moment of Remembrance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial
Day, May 28, 2012, as a day of prayer for permanent
peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each
locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite
in prayer. I also ask all Americans to observe the
National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m.
local time on Memorial Day.

I request the Governors of the United States and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the appropriate
officials of all units of government, to direct that
the flag be flown at half-staff until noon on this
Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval
vessels throughout the United States

and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control. I
also request the people of the United States to display
the flag at half-staff from their homes for the
customary forenoon period.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.