A Salute To The Brave

Every war brings atrocities committed by both sides, but in the midst of atrocities are the untold stories of heroes who risked all to save others from unimaginable horrors.  These men and women believe in the American way of life, with all its glitz and glamor, with all of its honor and courage and freedoms.  As I view pictures of the Freedom Rock I am struck by a sense of awe that these people, and so many more, have fought so that you and I might have the freedom to live as we choose, freedom to bash our government, to protest, to vote how we wish and even the freedom to decide not to vote at all.  They fought hatred and prejudice.  They fought genocide, starvation, slavery and the slow death of defeat of the human spirit.  These men and women have earned my respect simply by standing up to join the fight.  They earned my gratitude by leaving their homes and families to go where I dare not tread, so that I could stay home with my family.  They earned my love by standing up to tyrants and dictators and hate-mongers, working to free people who many times reviled the very people who were there to help them. 

It doesn’t matter whether you believe in the American government.  What matters is whether you believe that every man, woman and child should have the right to make their own decisions for good or bad.  That no one anywhere should force another to follow a set religion or culture.  That no one anywhere should be made to slave for another while their own families are left to die.  Those who fight for freedom have shown courage that I can only be in awe of and I bow down to them as the heroes of life that they are.

An excerpt from “No Peaceful Warriors!” by Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon

                “Peaceful warrior” is far more than a contradiction in terms.  The function of a warrior is to eliminate an exterior enemy presence… Cowardice is a serious vice.  Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than one’s fear.  The timid presume it is lack of fear that allows  the brave to act when the timid do not.  But to take action when one is not afraid is easy.  To refrain when afraid is also easy.  To take action regardless of fear is brave.”