Taken for Granted?
I
want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley
Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands. He stands barefoot in
the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and
emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing
but death and carnage of war. He stands tough, with fire in his eyes and
victory on his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us
this...
I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your
children graduate too illiterate to read it.
I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at
home because it rains.
I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain
silent on critical issues, because it might be bad for business.
I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen
democracy from the people.
It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press.
It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.
It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped
with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!!!
"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect
them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts
they perform for us in our time of need. Amen."
"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For,
indeed, that's all who ever have."
Margaret Mead
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any
war,no matter how justified,shall be directly proportional as to how they
perceive the veterans of earlier wars were Treated and Appreciated by their
nation."
George Washington