Remembering Our Veterans, True Soldiers

I don't like war. I wish we could all live in peace. All races, all religions, all schools of thought living peacefully. Wouldn't that be great?

Having said that, I do appreciate the men and women that serve our country. They face battles and atrocities I hope I never have to see first-hand. I know that sounds selfish, but at least I'm being honest. Most of us will never understand what soldiers go through no matter how often we get an email from someone who knows someone who has a loved one out in the battlefield, no matter how many times we see a news report live from a war-torn country. Most of us are already desensitized because we HAVE seen it too many times. It's sad, but more than likely this generalization is also true.

Being a military brat allowed me a different view. My father served for twenty years and luckily most of that time was in The Cold War, a threatening state of affairs in itself with days spent on Alert but nothing like what the branches of service have to deal with today. I have other family that has served or are currently serving. I have friends that are in the sandbox right now. And through the many other people in my life, I know their loved ones are keeping them company. Its bittersweet really. I wish we didn't have soldiers in the field, but it's an honor to know those men and women are fighting for my rights as an American. They've stood up and faced the challenge, some of them dying in the process, many more others grieving because of it.

I hope this Veteran's Day you are lucky enough to cross paths with one of our veterans, but more importantly I hope you thank them.

"...When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...."

The Declaration of Independence of the United States