FAIR WARNING: THIS IS NOT MY NORMAL TYPE OF BLOG
This morning was started about the same as any morning. I got up, sat down at my computer, brewed a cup of coffee, paid my attention dues to my 2 furry roommates, hooped in the shower, got dressed, and stepped out of the house and into another day on the way to work.
I climbed into my Silverado and started backing out of the driveway. Now note, nothing here is changed from any other morning in my routine, but as I placed the truck in drive, I happened to notice my next door neighbor was outside, raising the flag on his flagpole. Then it hit me.
All I had been thinking about this weekend was I was going to be off, the 4th of July weekend, 2 days of rest or project time, but my time! But seeing that flag headed to its position at the top of the pole, I started thinking about what that meant, and what it cost.
The Boston Tea party, Patriots revolting against tyranny, standing up for what they believed in, risking their very lives to do so. And the war that followed, men, boys, children fighting hand to hand, molten balls of lead exploding in their bodies as they were struck by enemy shots. Cannon balls weighing up to 42 pounds each tearing through masses of soldiers at breakneck speeds, dismembering people, shattering their bodies as they ripped through the line.
Then the civil war, brother killing brother, father killing son, American killing American, while all the while foreign powers assisting one side, or even both, trying to help this country destroy itself.
The Alamo, 190 men going to war with up to 6,000 enemy soldiers, their deaths a forgone conclusion, only the manner and meaning of those deaths to be decided/
And all the wars, battles, and skirmished that have followed over the course of our country’s history, far too many to write about and keep your attention, but important all the same. The price for freedom, the price for independence, the cost of my weekend off.
And yet, as I think about our country today, we are still fighting, fighting wars across the seas, but far far worse, fighting American vs American. Some of us, in the name of peace and humanity, incite others to destroy our neighborhoods, to loot, plunder and pillage, and to kill our neighbors. I am not talking about the people who protest the wrongs, I am speaking about those who piggyback on their movement, taking advantage of a group exercising their constitutional rights, in order to commit multiple scores of felonies for personal gain.
So as we enter this 4th of July weekend, and celebrate our nations independence, and our personal freedoms, which includes our ability to live in this lifestyle we have chosen, and the right and civic duty to protest the wrongs to try to make the right, let’s remember those who paid the price over the last 200 years so that we can celebrate this very special day, and perhaps in the near future, we will also be able to find a way to prevent riots, burnings, pillaging, murder, and looting in the name of humanity.
