I had posted on my FaceBook page the other day a question to all of my author-type friends.
Where would you be, had our Veterans not taken the risks they did and fought to give you your freedom?
Quite frankly, it unnerves me to think about it. But people these days, especially our children and teenagers, don't quite understand what it took to give us the freedom we have. My husband will go around and ask teenagers 4 specific questions:
1) What is the Constitution?
2) What is Independence Day?
3) What is the Bill of Rights?
4) What is the Revolutionary War?
Do you know that none of them can answer all four? If they get one right, we're stunned. But kids today have their noses in their computers and video games and sometimes in books. They don't teach as much about our History in the schools anymore, God forbid we offend someone. Due to the last of the Holocaust Survivors passing on, they're now trying to say that the Holocaust never happened.
Excuse me?
I'd love to hear the explanation as to how thousands of Jewish people died during that war.
Anyway, the point of this upcoming holiday is not the start of Summer. It isn't to grill on your barbecue and hold a super party complete with Red, White and Blue streamers just for a "splash of Summer color"...
Thank a Veteran, sincerely, for what they have done. Raise your flag and KNOW why you do so and explain to your children what those who have gone before us have done for us. Without them, Freedom would not exist.
::Salutes all Veterans:: I thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you did for me and this country.
7 comments:
We have our "Rememberance Day " in November but I still like to remember all soldiers who died for their country.
Yvonne.
Amen, Mel! Kids need to know there are countries out there where they'd be arrested for wearing jeans or gathering in groups or even accessing the Internet.
Amen Mel! Totally agree with you! If we don't know (accurately) where we have been, and what price we have paid, how can we know where we are going!
This is a very somber time of the year for me. Sometimes I just want to scream (like the times when someone can't answer one of those four questions) because ignorance of what every soldier has ever fought for is like a slap in the face.
On the other hand, comments like yours make me want to sing. It's stuff like what you said that makes it worth it and why I and every veteran that has ever lived will always be willing to die for this country.
Thank you.
My grandpa was a 'point' in the South Pacific in WWII. They kept rotating him out, then the person would die, so he'd have to step in again... again and again. Those are stories though, I never heard until after he died. He didn't like to talk about it.
I like to hope that after Vietnam and the mistreatment of Vets who'd just gone to do their jobs, that Americans can separate the heroes fighting from the policy makers and leadership making the decisions--because often I don't agree with the decisions, but the men and women out there are heroes--all of them.
I just wish the policy makers would decide based on HUMAN interests rather than financial or political ones, because I also think there have been battles where we were in the wrong (not the WARS necessarily, but the things Reagan got us involved with, for instance--Nicaragua, El Salvador)--still the soldiers were heroes--the fail falls to the policy makers.
I have said my thanks to Emily in private, now I say it here.
Thank you for your service to this country!
And Hart, I totally agree. I live in a small town and the first year here I noticed people dressed in black. I asked about them. They were protesting the war. I shrugged and said okay, let them. Until I saw some signs they held. Bashing the troops.
Made my blood boil. I wrote a letter to the editor telling them, I don't care if they're against the war, but they better support our troops over there. They're just doing their job, doing what they are told and when people over here start protesting the war in such a way, it makes our troops feel unloved and wary to come home. Makes them feel like they're stuck in a foreign land and no one appreciates that they are putting their very lives on the line for these people dressed in black and holding protest signs. Shame on them.
I wasn't the only one who wrote in and after awhile, you didn't see them on the street anymore. I hope someone got through to them.
Anyway, everyone have an enjoyable weekend, our troops and veterans have made it possible for you to have this time. They fought and died so you could live in comfort, honor them, remember them while you are cooking out at your BBQ's.
Great post, Mel! My son was in the Air Force, and the proudest moment of my life was at his graduation from basic training.
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