May 27, 2025

Retired veteran calls for actions that will honor the nation's fallen

The guest speaker at an annual Memorial Day ceremony in Rocky Mount quoted the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to emphasize the importance of honoring those who paid the highest price in having served the nation in uniform.

Before Cliff Weinstein spoke, Mayor Sandy Roberson addressed the gathering.

Roberson’s remarks included emphasizing that Memorial Day is more than a long weekend or an unofficial start of summer.

“It is a day to remember the names that may never be spoken of from a podium but are forever etched in the hearts of the families who love them, the comrades who served alongside them and the country they died protecting,” Roberson said.

Roberson also took a moment to express appreciation to Weinstein for being a patriot and also expressed appreciation to the rest of the veterans at the gathering for having carried the torch and having kept the promise.

“You’re the living link to the heroes that we remember,” Roberson told them.

Roberson added that he wants the nation, which is going to 250 years old next year, to continue to draw strength from the opening of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

He told the gathering that those words still matter, still inspire and are still worth defending.

“So today, as we lay wreaths, say prayers and reflect in silence, let us also rededicate ourselves to the cause for which so many gave their lives,” he said.

“Let us remain always and forever the land of the free because of the brave — and may we never forget freedom isn’t free,” he said.