This is part of a series called 24 Days of Thankfulness. These posts are in RANDOM order, NOT priority order. Each is something I am thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving.
DAY #11: Freedom
Today, on Veteran’s Day, I am thankful for the Freedom we enjoy in America and for those who defend it.
I am one of those Americans who cries during the National Anthem at sporting events. I am one who stops mid-sentence any time someone in uniform walks into a restaurant and I look at them in awe. I don’t care what rank they have. They have volunteered to serve and protect our Great Nation. I bring a boom box with patriot music to the fire works display on the 4th of July and I weep. And I’ve never seen a battle field. But I know how unique and incredible America is, more than most Americans. Why?
Because I have traveled to fourteen different countries on three different continents and despite those here who criticize our country, they ought to get out more. This Land is Amazing, from sea to shining sea. I have seen the fear in the eyes of people who lived with a citadel on the hillside pointing massive guns at their homes ready to blow up their house if they criticized the government. I have seen land torn by war. I have seen the poor living in cardboard boxes and digging through the garbage for a meal and relieving themselves in a hole in the ground. I have seen the poor, the hungry and the politically disadvantaged. Those who whine and complain here about “injustice” so they can live immoral or sinful lives or demonstrate to have “rights” to not work, not repay debt or not be responsible, have no idea what poverty, injustice or inequality is. They drive a car to rallies, use a cell phone to text complaints and video tape it all on expensive cam corders while celebrities, part of their hated 1%, ironically, cheer them on.
All while our soldiers are overseas giving their lives to protect those very rights. We live in a country were you are free to be a spoiled rotten selfish moron with out a clue what makes America Great – OR you are free to pursue the American Dream, by working work hard, failing, trying again, and succeeding to provide for your failing and loved ones.
All because men and women and fought and died all as volunteers time and time again on battlefields all over the world to protect the Grand Idea that it is individuals, not government, that makes this Nation Great!
We are FREE because we choose to be unshackled by the restraints of oppressive governments that hold individuals back from pursuing their God-given dreams.
That is under attack and at risk in our nation… let’s hope it changes in the next election, but in the meantime, enjoy the freedom you have, and be THANKFUL for the military we have, and those who serve and who have protected it against evil threats against our ideals from without for generations.
May we never lose those ideals from within.
