Good Morning Everyone,
Each Independence Day millions of us gather with our families to watch parades, fireworks, and to celebrate our countries birth and freedom. Now the parades are free, the fireworks at night are free, but our freedom is not and never will be free. Never let us forget the cost that some pay for that freedom so that all can enjoy the privilege and luxury of celebrating this day.
What has freedom come to mean in our time? Some will read this and quote the Bill of Rights as what it means. Freedom to say what we feel without fear, worship as one pleases, live where ever you choose. And some will simply say, "Freedom is free!"
Stop and think today, "What Price Freedom?"
The price of freedom is paid by almost everyone, the sacrifice of the soldier's Mother who occupied herself with daily chores of cooking and cleaning, just to dull the fear that plagued her days. What of the Father who worked until all hours of the night to avoid the phone and the mail, fearing the day he would find out his son was not coming home. The wife who worried about her children growing up without a father or as she strove to bring her veteran husband out of his melancholy, if only long enough to enjoy a day at the zoo with his family.
Ultimately however, the price falls on the soldier's sacrifice.
The soldier who goes into battle knowing he might give his life for his country which we accept without question. His long anxious hours in a cramped foxhole, the painful and gut wrenching helicopter flights to get medical aid, the years of therapy and struggle trying to recover the innocence lost to a ravaged battlefield, swampy marsh, or endless sticky jungle.
Some know these things, but others can only conjure up a mental image from some war movie as the sweat streaked soldier's line up in dirt caked uniforms waiting for the charge with fear stricken faces, one and then another falling, over and over again, stumbling, struggling to rise for one more chance. Don't feel bad about not understanding, because you cannot, unless you have choked on the smoke generated from each shell, in your own lungs, felt the sticky blood on your own fingers that cakes more and more.
This is the gift of freedom given from us so that "All" could reap the benefits.
Do we take that gift for granted?
Please stop today and just remember those who came before and paid the untimate price and cannot ever enjoy that which they fought and died for.
Number of Men and Women who gave their lives in Battle:
Revolutionary War - 4,435
War of 1812 - 6,765
Mexican War - 17,435
Civil War - 646,392
Spanish American - 4,108
WW1 - 320,710
WW2 - 1,079,162
Korea - 140,200
Vietnam - 211,556
Persian Gulf - 766
Number of Mothers and Fathers who lost Son's and Daughter's in battle:
Revolutionary War - 8,870
War of 1812 - 4,520
Mexican War - 3,466
Civil War - 280,830
Spanish American - 770
WW1 - 107,126
WW2 - 584,262
Korea - 67,334
Vietnam - 94,786
Persian Gulf - 296
Number of wives who lost husbands to war:
Revolutionary War - 2,217
War of 1812 - 3,382
Mexican War - 8,717
Civil War - 390,106
Spanish American - 2,054
WW1 - 160,355
WW2 - 539,581
Korea - 70,100
Vietnam - 105,778
Persian Gulf - 383
Number of Children who lost Father's or will never be born, because of war: - Uncountable!!!!!!!!
Is Freedom Free????????
All statistic's came from The World Almanac, 1998 Edition
Enjoy this day to the fullest, don't squander this precious gift!!!
wb |
