Today we Honor Our Veterans.

In this great country of ours, sometimes we overlook the provenance of those rights we so adamantly exercise… forgetting these came by at a price, a steep one for many.

Those of us who have come to this grand country looking for a place to live and to have a life (not always the same, you know!!) actually are prone to appreciate those liberties found here, sometimes even more than those men and women who have been born and raised within them.

I am not an advocate of war; have seen up close the damages it causes. Not only to the places where they are waged but also, and foremost, to the people involved in them. In several instances, a service death might have been a more charitable consequence than having lived and survived the horrors many service men and women have experienced. There are many lifetime scars that are not visible to the naked eye.

Those who served...

 Yet, what sometimes in the midst of heated discussions is forgotten is that we in this country enjoy liberties and guarantees which are often not available in many other nations. Is everything in our country perfect? No, it is not.  But we have the structures and venues in place which will allow us, the citizens, to change that which we deem necessary to change. When we begin to take for granted what we have, we run the very real risk of losing it. Younger generations sometimes forget these rights were not always there; that their forefathers, in coming here and wearing uniforms to defend this country and what it stood for, did in fact guarantee they would have those choices which are not so well understood. 

In these times of austerity and difficulties for many families, many are quick to blame others; blame the economy downturn on the “Big Cats”, the political issues on the politicians and the superfluous living on every one else. Yet, in the end, we are the ones who always wanted to buy “longer, lower, wider, more powerful…” (remember the car ads from the 50’s and 60’s), the ones who wanted to keep up with the neighbor’s latest acquisition, the ones who “just needed” to have that little electronic gadget which would find its way to the bin and be forgotten after a short while.

Perhaps we are the ones who need to have our ears pulled and be re-taught to first buy what we need and then, with a degree of constraint, what we want. I really won’t die if someone’s known designer name is not emblazoned across the front of my shirt. Or if I don't eat at the latest "In" place, paying twice as much for half the service ... And, as far as politicians go… we fools are the ones who put them where they are … if we wise up, we will get them the hell away from there as well. It is called the voting process.

We, in this country, have rules, systems and processes in place to handle most anything that comes up. We can protest, we can write, we can use the system(s), we can scream at the top of our heads that we “hate” the government… these are not given rights; they are earned rights.

...Deserve our Thanks.

 So, the next time you feel like exercising any one of those earned rights, thank a Veteran for his/her sacrifice, allowing you to do so. Take it from someone who lived under a system which abolished all those venues and liberties so many here easily take for granted. If you think a Veteran’s personal sacrifice on behalf of the nation had nothing to do with your present available rights … You Are WRONG. And if you believe that you can exercise them without understanding the responsibility this carries, you are also wrong.

Be Well … Be Back!!

Final Notes:

• Pray for those who are fighting an illness which may take them away from their loved ones… Every request is heard, and counts!!
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