I hope I don't dishonor the family. But there was no requirement to earn a red badge of courage. Simply joining to do one's share would have been sufficient for the honor of their fathers and mothers. Yet somehow, just their share was not enough for these 22. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real answer why we are here this evening simply because these 22 men were such exceptional American fighting men.
Many countries tie their rights or images of citizenship into ethnicity in some way.
The U.S. is not like that, and these men knew that, even if others didn't. Our American value system considers someone who has lived here for just a few years, but who loves this country enough to become a naturalized American citizen, as having the exact same rights as an American who was born here, but whose parents steamed over from Asia or an American whose forefathers sailed on the Mayflower, almost 400 years ago or an American whose ancestors paddled here to Hawaii in a seafaring canoe, over a thousand years ago. These men have shown that American valor is not driven by race, color, class, rank, background, or labels that divide. Because even though our nation has certainly made mistakes at times, at its very core, America stands for equality, freedom, liberty, and individual human value. We of today's armed forces are exceedingly proud of these 22 American heroes, who have finally received the belated recognition they have long deserved.