As we watch pictures today of people who can release years of frustration, fear, and anger freely, we can begin to understand just how valuable our freedoms and our way of life must be to so many who live without them.
Freedom can never be had without costs. But today, in parts of our world where freedom was a word not even carried on the whispers of dreams, the price of freedom must finally seem to be within reach.
What so many may have obtained had their lives never been given for freedom cannot be measured. That their lives were given for a dream that may only be realized by others proves that they are our eternal heroes. But what their sacrifice has given to the world can truly be appreciated today: a dream called freedom, a word called “hope”, and an ideal we have come to call “America”.
They remind us that America is not just a place in the world, but dream that can be shared by all you yearn to live free.
We are grateful for their sacrifice and we are indebted to them for all our lives. Freedom is surely their lasting legacy.
I think this post needs context.
I sat at home tonight watching the images of Iraqi men, women, and children flooding the streets of Iraq with such incredible emotions on their faces. I sat there crying. I really didn’t know why, but I was crying and the more I cried, the more I couldn’t stop crying.
And then it hit me: All my life I have accepted a gift that I could never repay. And tonight, for the first time as an adult, I was seeing people being given that same gift for the very first time.
After a while, I had to go sit down and write something to help me express what it meant to me. This post is that expression. I suspect they may not make much sense to anyone else but me.
I don’t have anywhere else to share them, so here they are.
I am so grateful to the men & women I have never met, who have given me something I will never fully comprehend or appreciate, and I can truly never repay. I can only thank God for their gift and pray that tonight, they can know that I care.
Kevin, this post didn’t need anything else. It was perfect. And still is.