It's Time to "Earn This".

If you're a soldier, or a veteran reading this, I would like to begin by saying, thank you. From the bottom of my respectful heart. 

To the rest of you, here we are, on Memorial Day. I would say "happy Memorial Day", but in light of the fact that today is a day of remembrance and, well, memorium; I have a difficult time putting "happy" anywhere in the sentence.

All across America, people are barbequing, splashing in rivers and pools, drinking beer and in general, having a good time. But some people have a hard time having fun on days like today--days when they remember the sorrow and pain that they first felt when they heard that their loved one had fallen in the sacred line of duty. Unfortunately, today's generation (meaning, mine) is quickly losing the sense of honor, duty, and patriotism that their grandparents and parents possessed.

The word "country" to them is just a place to live, to travel around, maybe. They glance at the occasional high-flying flag. They sing the national anthem at the basketball game (when they can remember the words). Some of the kids my age don't even know the Pledge of Allegiance, or worse, which hand to place over their heart.

When people take something like a national anthem for granted--they seem to completely forget the blood that was spilled--and is still being spilled--as a price we pay to have the freedom to sing OUR national anthem, and not someone else's, on our home soil.

I can't count the number of young men and women that join our armed forces simply because it's a free ride to college. It's four years that they can put off deciding what they really want to do with their lives. They're not joining because they want to dedicate their lives to ensuring that their children will have the same rights and benefits they did; not because they possess an innate sense of patriotism.
It's a cop-out, at best.

Now, in no way am I belittling the men and women who actually desire to protect our country, and fight for our continued freedom, uh-uh. I feel nothing but honor and respect for those soldiers. In fact, that's exactly why I'm writing this. The cop-outs are giving the patriots a bad name, and I don't think that's right.
Our forefathers didn't die so that we could take the freeway through life. They died so that their children, for generations to come, would be able to live in the greatest country in the world--America, the land of the free; the home of the brave. They died so that we could live in a country that was worthy of the honor, respect, and blessings that God and other countries would give us. True, we've lost thousands of soldiers to wars and skirmishes that weren't ours to get involved in. But this is neither the time or place to focus on that.

A quote comes to mind, from one of my favorite war movies; Saving Private Ryan. During the final scenes, Tom Hank's character--an Army Captain who lost many of his men just to bring one man, Private Ryan, home--was sitting in the middle of a muddy, bloody bridge. Private Ryan, is sitting with him, appreciative at the very least for everything that the Captain had done for him. On his dying breath, Hank's character, Captain Miller, leans in close to Private Ryan and says two simple words: "Earn this."
And Ryan spends his entire life trying to do just that. Trying his best to earn the life the he only has because of the lives others lost to save him.

I believe that if our forefathers could have given us a piece of advice that simple, they would have told us to "earn this." To earn the freedom that cost men their lives so that we could live ours without fear. We can sleep at night because there are men and women out there keeping watch over us and our homes.

So I have just one more thing to say to my generation:
Earn this. 


And to those of you who know someone who made the ultimate sacrifice, I would like to share this:
"...I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. Yours very sincerely and respectfully, Abraham Lincoln."

With that, I will finally close, and remind you that, despite our country's complete sense of apathy and at times, completely dishonorable conduct, that all in all, God's Still Blessing America...so please, take a few moments to thank Him for it.  

--Respectfully,
J. Ryder
a.k.a. BoondockAngel