Governor Participates in Gouldsboro Memorial Day Ceremony

Gouldsboro, MAINE -- Governor Janet Mills this morning delivered remarks at the Town of Gouldsboro's Memorial Day Ceremony, held at the Prospect Harbor Women's Club. The Governor is pictured with keynote speaker Major Robert Pike, U.S. Army, Retired, whose distinguished military and civilian service with the United States Army spanned 40 years.

The Governor's full remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below.

Governor Janet Mills

Memorial Day Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Prospect Harbor Women's Club
Monday, May 26, 2026

It is an honor to be with you to celebrate this Memorial Day, an occasion not merely to enjoy a barbecue or a sail on this sea, but, as always, to stir the "mystic chords of memory," to remember and revive the past, for the sake of preserving our future.

Memory is a fickle thing in the mind.

We remember songs, poems, and pictures, things which evoke thoughts and feelings.

Painful times often leave little but a blank in the mind, for the soul fears to suffer once again.

Good times we remember as if they just occurred, while days and years of waiting and want in war time seem quickly passed…good endings erase so much.

But those who have lost loved ones or who have sacrificed much of themselves to war remember the words of the poet Aeschylus:

"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

So, it is with these honored dead and with you who have served your country, and for those on the home front who also worked, waited and watched during times perilous to our nation, that we find a quiet moment in the cacophony of current conflicts and difficult conversations, to remember the good, the awful and the ultimate grace of our nation.

We thank the men and women whose lives were lost in combat in the past, and we pray for the prompt return of those now serving in foreign lands, in a war whose purpose and whose end are uncertain.

We reject the call of those from different corners of our country, of our psyche, who speak of force for the sake of force, who offer unpersuasive platitudes, and whose veracity is diminished by their volume.

We honor not fighters of fortune, but soldiers of selfless sacrifice who heard an unmistakable call to defend our constitution and our country.

What did they fight for?

What did they die for?

For the right to disagree...the right to express an opinion, whether anyone listens or not.

The right to pray. Or not to pray, to find courage in one's faith and in one's soul.

The right to personal privacy in one's home and in the fundamental decisions of life.

The right to ask for help from the government, the responsibility of the government to provide it, and the right to be free of governmental intrusion.

The right to vote and the right to a public education to encourage informed choices in life.

So many rights which are all too fragile and often taken for granted.

The right to equal representation, now at risk in states across this country and in the highest court in the land, a right which was honored by the very founder of this holiday -- former Congressman and Union Army General John Alexander Logan, who returned from fighting in the Civil War and voted to abolish slavery, to establish voting rights for African Americans, and to create "Decoration Day," which later became Memorial Day, dedicated to decorating the graves of soldiers.

Maine has paid the price, more than any other state, for a free and undivided republic, including the 73,000 Maine men who fought for the Union in the Civil War.

Today we remember veterans who died in that service, including men from Presque Isle to Kittery who defended the Union in the Civil War.

Among the privileges of serving as your Governor is residing in a house which welcomed Ulysses S. Grant many times when he visited James Blaine, a friend of Pres. Lincoln.

Another privilege is watching the sun shine on the granite face of the state's Capitol, a facade which looks out along a long stretch of green space now called Capitol Park. It is that space where, 165 years ago, Governor Israel Washburn, Jr. mustered thousands of troops following the attack on Fort Sumter, troops who awaited orders to travel south to save the Union and rid our country of the evils of slavery.

In less than two years under Governor Washburn's leadership, more than 50,000 men from Maine were sent off to war. And it was men from Maine who helped win the war. The Twentieth Maine, under the leadership of General, and later Governor, Joshua Chamberlain, fought and won the Battle of Gettysburg which turned the tide, pushed the Confederate Army back, and led ultimately to Union victory.

General Chamberlain and all of those men left the comfort of their homes so that we might be safe in ours, including this lovely community which was settled by non-Indigenous families including a free African American man named Thomas Frazer who fought valiantly in the Revolutionary War.

This morning, I am thinking of all of those soldiers.

I am thinking of my father and uncles who served in the Pacific in World War II, and my brother who served in Vietnam.

And I am thinking of the 102,000 veterans living in our state today who left the safety of their homes so that we might be safe in ours.

I am thinking too of distinguished Army veteran Phyllis Marie Peterson, an active member of this community who served in Vietnam and who passed away this past January.

We honor also the sudden loss of good public servants here in Maine who died unexpectedly in recent days while fulfilling their duties and for whom our flag also stands at half mast. A plane crash and a fire took their lives.

In the order creating the first Memorial Day, General Logan wrote "If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it as long as the light and warmth of life remains in us."

That trust involves in us the duty to stand up always for our constitutional rights, for those who cannot stand up for themselves, for the rule of law and for the safety and security of our country, domestically and abroad.

This Memorial Day we remember the cost of a free republic, a democracy undivided but diverse. We recommit to keeping that republic, to defending the constitution and our freedoms as long as the light and the warmth of life remains in us. We walk forward as we always have, in fits and starts if we must, towards that "more perfect union" until the promise of progress, of freedom, of justice, and of equality for all is more than just a dream for every American.

Let us honor with reverence all those who have faithfully served our state and our nation in the Armed Forces, those who serve today, and those who gave, as President Lincoln said, "the last full measure of devotion." Thanks to them, we have not only endured, we have survived. And still we will rise and will rise again.

It is thus we reflect upon the grace of this great country and this state and on those who have served and continue to serve her well, this Memorial Day, two thousand twenty-six.

God bless you. God bless the State of Maine.

Thank you.