Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2020

Proclamation 10040 of May 21, 2020

Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2020

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the first shots fired in the Revolutionary War,
Americans have answered the call to duty and given
their lives in service to our Nation and its sacred
founding ideals. As we pay tribute to the lives and
legacies of these patriots on Memorial Day, we also
remember that they sacrificed to create a better, more
peaceful future for our Nation and the world. We
recommit to realizing that vision, honoring the service
of so many who have placed love of country above all
else.

As Americans, we will always defend our freedom and our
liberty. When those principles are threatened, we will
respond with uncompromising force and unparalleled
vigor. Generation after generation, our country's
finest have defended our Republic with honor and
distinction. Memorials, monuments, and rows of white
crosses and stars in places close to home like
Arlington, Virginia and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as
well as far-flung battlefields in places like Flanders
Field in Belgium and Busan in Korea, will forever
memorialize their heroic actions, standing as solemn
testaments to the price of freedom. We will never take
for granted the blood shed by these gallant men and
women, as we are forever indebted to them and their
families.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Allied
victories over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World
War II. As we commemorate these seminal events, we also
remember the tremendous cost at which these victories
came. More than 400,000 souls of the Greatest
Generation perished during this titanic struggle to
liberate the world from tyranny. In his address to the
Nation on Japan's surrender, President Truman's words
remind us all of our enduring obligation to these
patriots for their sacrifice: ``It is our
responsibility--ours the living--to see to it that this
victory shall be a monument worthy of the dead who died
to win it.'' As we pause to recall the lives lost from
the ranks of our Armed Forces, we remain eternally
grateful for the path they paved toward a world made
freer from oppression.

Our fallen warriors gave their last breath for our
country and our freedom. Today, let us pause in quiet
reverence to reflect on the incredible dedication of
these valiant men and women and their families,
invoking divine Providence as we continue pursuing our
noble goal of lasting peace for the world.

In honor and recognition of all of our fallen heroes,
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, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial
Day, May 25, 2020, 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 when
people might unite in prayer.

I further ask all Americans to observe the National
Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time
on Memorial Day.

I also request the Governors of the United States and
its Territories, and the appropriate officials of all
units of government, to direct that, on Memorial Day,
the flag be flown at half-staff until noon 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-first day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and forty-fourth.