Giving the Commencement Address at the US Naval Academy at the beginning of the Memorial Weekend, President Obama said:This chain of service calls to mind words that were spoken here in Annapolis on another spring day a century ago. The crowds assembled, the bands played, the cannons roared. As John Paul Jones' body was carried to the Yard, President Teddy Roosevelt spoke to the midshipmen gathered there that day.
"Remember," he said, "our words of admiration are but as sounding brass and tinkling symbols if we do not prepare to emulate their deeds."
Emulate their deeds. That is what you are called upon to do.
President Obama delivers Commencement address at US Naval Academy, Washington Post, 22 May 2009.
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: U.S. President Barack Obama congratulates John Sidney McCain IV, son of Arizona Senator John McCain, during the graduation and commissioning ceremonies at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis May 22, 2009. (Photo courtesy of Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)