(This is a piece -with very minor changes- which first appeared on this blog 4 years ago. Not much has changed, or will change)
In this great country of ours, sometimes we overlook those
rights and freedoms we so adamantly exercise… forgetting these came by at a price, a very 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 tend 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.
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 places. 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 adds 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. 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 great country of ours, 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 and freedoms. And the price has been high.
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
rights many so 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 and freedoms… You Are WRONG.
Be Well … Be Back!!
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