Remembering Our Heroes.
When this time of year comes around you can feel the excitement and unrest in the air, people anxious to feel the sun on their shoulders, children ready to be free from the bondage of the school year, fathers nationwide blowing the cobwebs out of the grill, but this weekend in particular means so much more for many Americans.
Many of us take extra time this weekend to remember how we arrived here, and the hundreds of thousands of brave souls who made it possible for us to do so under a blanket of safety, security, and freedom.
I am a veteran. My father, grandfather, great grandfather, and many more in my family are veterans. I work with veterans, I have neighbors and friends who are veterans, and I'm sure I pass ten or more vets a day who are unannounced and under appreciated.
This weekend is not about me, or my father, or the neighbors and friends I can say thank you too and shake their hands.
This weekend is about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for millions of strangers, those who unselfishly and without hesitation put themselves between evil and oppression for you and I, because they loved us and never even knew our names.
These brave people, these heroes we speak of far too infrequently, left it all on the battlefield for us, and asked for nothing in return.
They left behind spouses, parents, siblings, and children. They left a void in the world that a brave and beautiful soul once filled, and they did so because they could, and they would not have it any other way.
While we get to enjoy this weekend and all that comes with it, the smell of cut grass and bbq, the sound of our children giggling in the backyard, the warmth of the sun and the sounds of nature coming alive after a hard winter, REMEMBER that so many no longer have that privilege. They did this for us, for you, for me, for every person and every generation that comes after them.
NEVER ever let the memory or sacrifice of these fallen warriors fade from our minds and our hearts. It is only the sacrifice of those brave heroes that allows us to be here, and anyone who says different is ignorant to the rich history of selfless service and patriotism that made and kept us safe and free in the greatest country on earth, the shining light on the hill, the altar upon which we will worship, these United States of America.
Say a prayer for them, say a prayer for the ones they left behind, and remember that our freedom comes with the highest cost, and it is paid for with the blood of the greatest Patriots the world will ever know.
May you forever rest in peace, thank you.
