Representative Keenan Participates in 2006
Salem Memorial Day Ceremonies

SALEM, MA – Representative John Keenan (D-Salem) participated in the parade and ceremonies in Salem today in commemoration of Memorial Day. In addition to delivering a proclamation from Governor Mitt Romney, the Representative offered a few brief remarks on Salem’s proud tradition of patriotism.

Representative Keenan, a lead cosponsor on recently enacted legislation establishing a bonus for Massachusetts veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, spoke as part of a moving ceremony in the late morning at Greenlawn Cemetery in Salem.

Representative John Keenan’s Memorial Day 2006 Remarks

In 1799, the only ship of war built here in Salem put to sea. The Essex cost $75,000 -- by comparison, today a Navy destroyer runs about $1.5 billion. What made the Essex especially unique, however, was not its price tag. What made the Essex unique was that, despite being an American naval warship, the American Navy did not pay for it.

The people of Salem – laborers and merchants alike – raised the funds as a donation to our nation’s new Navy. Samuel McIntire provided the woodwork and Enos Briggs provided the shipyard. And Salem gave America an 850 ton frigate, thirty-two guns to fight the British in the War of 1812.

I share this story because it is representative of our city on the sea: our compassion, our pride, and our patriotism. This is the home of Leslie’s Retreat, where the first blood was shed for liberty. This is the home of “Old Glory” and the Second Corps and Company H, who mustered on our public green at Salem Common and were housed in the old Armory. This is the home of the Zouaves, Salem volunteers who answered Lincoln’s call in 1861. Those sons of Salem deployed within a remarkable seventy-two hours of receiving word that soldiers were needed to protect the Union. And this is the home, today, to over thirty-five-hundred veterans – men and women, old and young.

Today we are gathered as a community to pay tribute to their comrades in arms who have served us and who have left us. The greater Salem family, together in remembrance and in common cause, we gather to remember them – not with anger or sorrow at their departure – but with hope and with thanks for their service. We cherish the light they brought into our lives as our fathers, mothers, siblings, or neighbors. And, in the face of sometimes smoldering cynicism, we invoke with honor this solemn truth: these Salem patriots gave their lives for this nation, this Commonwealth, and this community. And we would not, could not, be the free people we are today without their sacrifice.

In the words of our founders, these men and women “pledged their sacred honor” to our liberty. Together, let us pledge ourselves to never let the memory of their lives and their loss fade from our minds. It is an honor to be with you all today. Thank you, and God bless this city, this Commonwealth, and the United States.