Day: "Veterans Are Heroes Who Walk Among Us Every Day"

State Representative Michael Day's Remarks on Memorial Day:

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to address you this morning. I am very happy to join you here as we bring honor and meaning to this tradition of paying tribute to our departed heroes. To those men and women who rose to answer a call to duty, to serve in harm’s way and to protect and preserve the traditions of this great nation.

We gather here today to remember the countless citizens who sacrificed their own futures so that we may have ours. We gather here today to pay tribute to those who guaranteed that our way of life would survive, and we renew the pledge that they made, that we will carry forth our values and traditions and that we will impart them on our own children.

Late last week I attended the funeral of Dr. Michael Tramonte. Dr. Tramonte was the son of two immigrants from Italy who arrived in this country with the hopes of providing better lives for their children. He would serve his country in the United States Army during the Korean War and, after his honorable discharge, utilized the GI Bill to put himself through school and eventually earn his doctorate. He worked for many decades as a teacher and a school psychologist, helping countless students struggling through personal tragedies and crises.

Dr. Tramonte dedicated more than 20 years of his life to his work as a mental health volunteer for the American Red Cross, responding to more than 10 national disasters and countless local incidents, including the September 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombings. He worked closely with survivors of these disasters, providing personal psychological first aid and trauma counseling. He closed a personal reflection written for his 50th college reunion by writing,
“While on earth, we need to make the world a better place for others.”

Dr. Tramonte personified our veteran population. His service to us did not stop when he took off his army uniform. He never stopped serving; he never stopped working for all of us. That is who our veterans are: they are heroes who walk among us every day, who do not look for recognition or acclaim, who simply go about their everyday life and, in so doing, make the world a better place for others.

Dr. Tramonte’s new grave site will be decorated with a flag, like so many other grave sites that fill our cemeteries. His name will rightly be carved onto an honor roll of veterans, joining so many other brave women and men who went before him.

These memorials we’ve erected and re-dedicate every year to our fallen heroes reflect their names, their service branches, their dates of birth and their deaths. But they don’t tell us that these individuals were and are part of the fabric of our community. They are our doctors, our first responders, our teachers, our shop owners. They are our neighbors, our church leaders, and our youth sport coaches. They are an essential part of “us,” and we rightfully honor them.

Let us use today, therefore, to give true meaning to their sacrifices by putting aside our petty, personal grievances and to instead commit ourselves to use our time to make our world a better place for others.