Freedom's Fidelity

Friday, December 24, 2004

For Those Who Risk It All

I'm really looking forward to Christmas, spending time with loved ones, trading gifts, eating a lot and drinking too much and not going to work. Yet, while I do all of those things, there are young men and women out there, spending Christmas in a violent foreign country away from their families, making it all possible for me and trying to bring some peace to a part of the world that really hasn't seen it... ever maybe.

Please think of our men and women overseas. Adopt a soldier through Soldiers Angels or donate some money to Spirit of America. $20 or a few minutes to write a thank you note does more than you think.

There is no possible way that I could express my gratitude, but this commenter says it much better than I ever could.

The thing I keep coming back to with our all-volunteer forces is the fact that our soldiers willingly sign up to risk being killed at 18, 19, etc... for me. For my wife. For my kids. For my standard of living. For my vacations. For someone with a future having less years remaining than his own future. For the freedom I have to sip cider while seated on the hearth in the safety of my warm, holiday-cinnamon-scented home, secure in the knowledge that I'll never face a moment of conflict with a human demon who's about to saw off my head.

Being in my early 40s, when I see a photo of some 18 y.o. kid who lost his life in Iraq because he rolled onto a grenade to save his mates, I find myself teary...

...As I contemplate all the things in life that he might not yet have experienced, and now that he'll never know - the love of a soulmate, the joy of having and raising children, sex (perhaps), being at his father's bedside, holding his hand as his dad slips away... buying a house... walking through corn rows with his faithful dog at his side... fly fishing... grilling out on the deck with his friends as they watch the Super Bowl... rebuilding a small block chevy... walking that same field with the dog in a foot of new snow... finally finding time to complete that scale model plastic F-15 that he started on in 6th grade...

Greater love hath no man...

Amen.

posted by Paul  permalink | |