Let Us Remember

Today is considered a "holiday", a fact which I find quite interesting. Holiday's mean laughter and cheer but I think that today many are shedding tears of sorrow. It's a day of remembrance, one in which we reflect on the lost loved ones that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Yet, in the midst of sorrow it is a time of celebration...for we as a nation posses freedom. I don't think we fully grasp the reality of this priceless gift since we know not what it is to be without it! In the Scriptures the word "remember" is mentioned around 147 times... Seems to me that God considers such an act as quite important. Let us rejoice in the liberty our Lord has given us and honor the memory of the brave men and women who have given their all that we might live in freedom.

~ ~ ~

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