Independence

Freedom Isn't Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze
A young soldier saluted it, and then
He stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many Pilots' planes shot down?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No Freedom isn't free

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen"
When a flag had draped a coffin
of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard at the
bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.....
No -- Freedom isn't free!!

...Cadet Major Kelly Strong
Air Force Junior ROTC

Happy 235th Birthday America.  Though I don't always agree with what you do; though I sometimes fear where our future lies; I am blessed beyond measure to be counted one of your children.  Sometimes I forget myself and bemoan the conditions in which I live, but then I look about at foreign lands that truly know what heartache and sorrow are, and when I come to myself I feel such humility.  I have a car that runs.  I have a home that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  When I hunger, my biggest troubles are where will I eat not how will I eat.  Compared to so many across the globe I live as a King.  I am proud and thankful to be an American.  I am forever indebted to the every soldier that donned the uniform, signed his/her life over willingly, and paid for something I could never earn nor deserve.

Freedom.