I grew up next to an Army base. Many members of my family are veterans. One of my grandfathers bought a red poppy for me to wear in rememberance every year. College friends left school to fight in the first Iraq war. I cried when a boy I babysat was killed in this latest struggle.
There's not a day that I'm not aware that the price of freedom is very high.
Whether we all agree with the current war or not, we can agree that those who fight and die do so honorably. Duty. Honor. Sacrifice. They give the upmost for those they leave behind.
I think the greatest question we can ask ourselves is how we can honor what the give us in our choices, our relationships and our attitude towards community and country.
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
- Douglas MacArthur
Thank you for serving.
I think Father D.E. O'brien says it best:
ReplyDelete"It's the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the Soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It's the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
It's the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trail.
And it's the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves the flag, whose coffin is draped in the flag, that allows the protester to burn the flag"