Monday, August 17
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Mayor Phil Gordon
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Thank you all for the warm welcome. Of course, in Phoenix, in August, just about any welcome is warm.
This is a very important event. So important that you may have seen a very big, blue and white airplane parked just down the road this morning. By the way, that was a clue to me that I’m clearly not the featured speaker.
Well good morning! This is a great moment for me and, obviously, we’re ALL in for a remarkable day. So welcome to Phoenix!
It is my honor to be with you. I am so very proud of my city.
Let me get a couple of my “Mayor Duties” out of the way – by telling you how proud I am of my City. I’m proud of the people who live and work here. I’m proud of this wonderful Convention Center. And I’m proud that Phoenix is now the FIFTH largest city in America.
But nothing fills my heart with pride more than looking out at all of you. I thank you for being here. But most of all – I thank you for your service.
For the entirety of my own life, starting with my dad, and continuing through to my oldest son – both of whom served this country with distinction -- I have had a lifetime of pleasure spending time with the extraordinary men and women who have performed extraordinary acts of valor and sacrifice for us all. I have been touched in a deep and personal way by each and every one of them.
And by each and every one of you.
The freedoms we all enjoy at home – and seek for the rest of the world – are not won by simply wishing or hoping. They are won by real men and women, taking real risks, dodging real bullets, shedding real blood, and when needed, spending their very life.
I’ve seen their sacrifices – YOUR sacrifices -- up close and very personal. Veteran’s hospitals are filled with those whose service has left them scarred, broken yet forever proud. Cemeteries around the globe are dotted with the headstones of Americans who wanted nothing more than liberty for people they would never meet –and to come safely home to their families.
For a nation whose very birth grew out of a revolution – fighting for freedom has always been part of America’s history and legacy. You might even say it’s in our national DNA. It’s what we do.
We are still reaping the benefits of our Veterans’ sacrifices. It’s a debt that can never be paid in full.
Nothing I do as mayor will ever – ever be as important to me as making sure that every one of YOU are treated with the respect you have earned – and are getting the care you deserve.
My first official acts as Mayor established a Veterans Commission for the City -- and added a Veterans’ liaison to my own staff. Since then, we’ve opened a lounge at Sky Harbor International Airport for members of the military and their families and, to this day, for city employees who are called into active service – we remain the only City in the country to supplement their military pay so they continue to make the same salary they made in their City jobs. That’s one less thing for our servicemen and women to worry about. And one more way my community can show our gratitude.
I can’t tell you how grateful I am – to attend events honoring our Veterans -- even though I sometimes feel out of place – never having the honor of serving my country in the way each of you have. Yet I know I need to be there -- honoring the very people who made it possible for me to do what I do. I talk to as many Veterans as I can -- and I will never forget any of them.
My respect for Veterans did not happen magically or overnight. It was first instilled in me, as I alluded to, by my father – who served in the great war of his own generation. I can tell you, he served us well – and is now resting along side thousands of others who fought with him and before him.
As a nation, we’re still fighting the good fight.
Young men and women are still giving us the very best they have to give. And decades from now, THEY will be sitting in a room like this one. Listening to a different Mayor. Being thanked by a future President. Because I know that, because of them, our nation will endure – and freedom will continue to ring.
Being Mayor is fine. But who has a more important job than the very people who keep us free? Nobody. That’s why, every time I see a Veteran – I tell them thanks. Because as John Kennedy reminded us in his wise and eloquent way, “the price of freedom is always high – but Americans have always paid it.”
So to you, I say “Thanks”. This grateful Mayor – and our grateful nation -- will forever be in your debt.
May God continue to Bless you all – and the nation you served so honorably.