Freedom

Wanted to present some really special stuff in honor of the Forth of July today. Freedom never comes free and is always defended at great personal sacrifice. Our friends within the Middle East have learned this lesson quite graphically in recent years. But America too has been challenged in her freedoms through a series of wars against adversaries of oppression from colonial Brittan, to Nazi Germany, Communism, and Islamic Extremism. Through these battles we’ve lost many men and women, who will never know old age, but will know the true costs of freedom and understand horrors that most of us can’t even envision in the perversities of our minds. Freedom is never free, and it certainly isn’t easy. Every dead soldier has family, friends, and dreams that they left behind because they believed so strongly in freedom and loved this country so damn much that they were willing to die for it.

Today we remember them…as mom, dad, brother, sister, and friend and think about the good moments they provided us during their time on this Earth. There may be tears shed, that’s okay for many who’ve lost friends and relatives in Iraq and Afghanistan, while for many others the loss happened fifty years ago, but is especially hard on days like today. The reality of the American military is that they are around us, either in our daily lives as doctors, police officers, or students on our college campuses. Or they live on, in spirit and memory…leaving those of us left behind to wish they where here. As your celebrating this holiday, please remember the people who gave you freedom and many more gifts will never be able to fully repay.