YOU ARE A HERO
To the Military: You are not a hero because you fight and die in a war that I do not agree with, for a cause I do not support, in a country I believe is better off without us. You are a hero because you fight and die to protect my right to hold these beliefs.
To the Soldier: You are not a hero because you suffer terrible wounds from stepping on a land mine in a foreign land, just to come home to months of physical therapy and pain and suffering while I protest outside your hospital room because I do not agree with your actions. You are a hero because you suffer for my right to protest your actions, even though I benefit from them.
To the Airman: You are not a hero because you were shot down over hostile territory, held in a foreign prison and tortured on a daily basis for months or even years. You are a hero because you crawl into the cockpit of a plane and fly over hostile territory knowing in advance this might happen, but you go anyway.
To the Sailor: You are not a hero because you spend months in a cramped submarine with hundreds of other men, away from your family and loved ones, facing torpedoes from enemy forces whose only desire is to wipe you off the face of the earth. You are a hero because when your hitch is up, you go back and do it again.
To the Marine: You are not a hero because you fly in helicoters, ride in tanks, walk through jungle and dessert and blizzard behind enemy lines, eat cold food out of a bag and risk dying every day. You are a hero because you volunteer to do this while I call you every name in the book and petition my respresentatives to cut your benefits.
To the Coast Guardsman: You are not a hero because you interdict the drug runners, face criminals who would gladly shoot you on sight, face judges who then turn this very same human waste loose to do it again, or because you rescue people who are stranded, sometimes by their own lack of common sense and who many times do not want to be rescued. You are a hero because you never stop trying to do your job.
To the Military: You are not a hero because you get up every morning and put on a uniform. You are a hero because you live up to the expectations symbolized by that uniform, even when others will not.
Amen, Amen.
Thank you veterans, of all our wars. Thanks to those who froze at Valley Forge, to give birth to this bastion of liberty. Thanks to those who fought at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and Antietam who bled so that our nation could purge slavery and finally live together as one. Thanks to those who fought in Mexico, the Phillipines to expand our interests and protect us. Thanks to those who fought side by side with the Brits and French in the Big One, to those who fought at Bastogne, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Saipan, and elsewhere who overcame fascism and ushered in liberty to the oppressed. Thanks to those who fought around Seoul, Pusan, and elsewhere who fought to keep the torch of liberty lit for South Korea, the forgotten warriors of Korea. Thank you veterans of Da Neng, Khe Sang, and that war which wounded us so deeply, your heroism has never been fully appreciated. Thanks to those who went to Grenada, to Panama, to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Thank you veterans, one and all, for protecting us, fighting for us, and for inspiring us. We are, now and forevermore, in your debt. God bless you all....
