Thank you Grandpa, Dad, Uncle, Cousins, Strangers and Friends for your Sacrifice
My Uncle is on the Viet Nam Memorial wall, in the earliest of the panels. Dad was on a submarine. Other relatives and friends have sacrificed much to keep this country free. Like many other “thank you” holidays, we need to be thanking these people daily, not just once or twice a year. It doesn’t matter what the politics are or were behind those wars. What matters is they were willing to go put their lives on the line because this is a country they believe in. What you do with that freedom is up to you.
So, thank you Veterans. I’m sorry we didn’t treat a lot of you very well when you came home. We just didn’t know. I know I didn’t understand. I was angry that my friends were coming home in body bags – I lost eight friends in the Viet Nam war when I was in college. I didn’t know what they were up against until I sat in the front row at the theater and watched Apocolypse Now.
It’s not that I bought the movie as 100% true. It was just the first time I was face to face with the insanity of war and the courage many bring to those situations.
I still believe in the idea of the USA; in what she stands for and what she has been able to accomplish in a very short 229 years. I don’t know if some of our wars and skirmishes were right. History may answer that. What I DO know is that men and women put their lives on hold and went out to do a job most would avoid.
Thank you to all the veterans who thought this was important enough to write that blank check to America. I appreciate you.
Now, dear reader, how about going out and buying some meals for those Vets we see on the streets. I’m headed out now… Join me?
Blessings and God Bless America,
© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved
