Today is Veteran’s Day and this is a tribute to those who serve and have served our nation in battle and in service throughout the world.
Recently I read the journal of a World War II veteran who was my good friend. His wife gave me a look into his journal about the war that was written after he returned from Europe when the war had ended. His journal was full of thoughts about the war, about his country as well as our future. This is the only story I would like to share.
“Time went swiftly when I was young. It seemed that one day was never separated from another but it was because each and every day started with the sun rising and ending with the same sun setting. The fear of dying in combat never left. Maybe that’s why every day seemed the same; one day after another with no end in sight. It always seemed cold to me in Europe. It was always rainy and wet and the wet was always cold. The world seemed to have shrunk and everything was right before my eyes. Each and every day the same thing; a never ending fight to survive, maybe that is why each and every day seemed the same, the never ending day. My buddies dying around me just isolated me from the world.”
Photo Credit: Defense.gov
“God I wanted the war to end and it would be the last war anyone one would ever have to fight again. I pleaded, Oh please God, let us learn and never have to fight a war again. Let us live in peace and learn to care for one another. No one should ever have to watch their friend die and life be wasted like happens in war.”
These are the thoughts of my friend who died a few years ago. Imagine how he feels now, on the other side, looking down at us. What did I fight for, certainly not to see the freedoms we all held so dear to be washed away by apathy?
I think about the history of this country and the wars fought that we might have freedom and my heart aches. The revolutionary war, the war of 1812, the civil war, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf War, the retaliatory wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, and other necessary military actions, when men fought and some died believing the cause of freedom was worth their sacrifice.
We hold these truths to be self evident. What is so self evident today? Was it worth it for lives to be given and wasted on a society that has gone stale with apathy? We look around and what do we see? Popcorn growing on an apricot tree, what? No, we see mildew on intelligence, moss on integrity, mental pollution, decay of morals, sloth, dole of unearned funds, and apathy toward freedom, that’s what we see.
What should we see? A country, a nation that loves freedom and holds these truths to be self evident, as stated in the Constitution. People who should not stand for the government leaders to spend funds enough to bankrupt their nation, and then allow those leaders to sit back and smile like it was unintentional, then allow this to happen without reprisal, is unforgivable.
The Constitution was written for us and for our freedom. The many lives given as a sacrifice for freedom must mean something to every American. It just must. We have what those fought and died for, freedom to live our lives and do what is best for everyone not just ourselves.
Being raised on a farm living an agrarian lifestyle was the ideal. Grow what you eat and eat what you grow. Chickens lay eggs and are white meat, cows give milk, horses pull plows, pigs make ham and the other white meat, and turkeys, ducks, and other farm animals give whatever they have for man’s survival. If every politician had to go back home, go to work and face his neighbors, live off what he earns, life would be so much more enjoyable.
When did a politician become a profession anyway? Want to stop unnecessary spending, then quit paying them salaries, force them to work just like you and me and hold congress at level one, small and controllable. Why don’t we repay the many that died for our freedom and live worthy of the bloodshed for us to live free and the lives of future generations?
I love my country and would give my life to save the values we hold so precious, freedom, liberty, justice, human rights, and love of God.
No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.
