Imagine, if you will, that your children are hungry. They have no shoes on their feet and they are filthy dirty. Imagine what it must be like as a parent when you never know if today is the last day you will ever see your children again. Imagine going to sleep at night and wondering if your building is going to be used by a criminal and targeted for search or even destruction. Think about what it would be like if every time you went shopping you had to watch out for a car or truck that was laden with explosives. Hard to imagine isn’t it?
There are men and women of valor who serve and those who die here because of what America stands for. They do a terrifying work, yet each and everyday they go back out. Seeing and experiencing things that they secretly pray you will never have to witness. They endure hardships and pain like most will never know, yet they bond together to persevere. They are men and women of courage stepping up to fill the gap to ensure the future of our land. I’ve seen the look in their eyes after a bomb destroys the iron horse they so bravely rode into battle. The pain in the eyes of leaders who mourn the loss of one of their own. Most are just big kids, barely 19 but already have lived a life time. Never knowing if today may be the day they will pay the ultimate price but somehow confident that they will come home again. They are tired and hot and mentally exhausted yet they continue to march for you and I. They reach their hand out to a people who for the first time have a glimpse of freedom. A possible dream for a future generation.
Be thankful America! Thank your maker that you don’t have to hear the sound of rockets in the night sky and wonder where they will land. Be thankful that you can feed your children or take them to the store to shop without the worry of a maniac with a car bomb killing them. Be thankful that you can get gas on every corner in America and not have to pay $50 a gallon on the black market. Be thankful that you can have nice things like a home, running water, medicine, doctors and dentist, and electricity. Please don’t complain about how the world owes you something. Instead set the example for the world to follow by standing up and filling the gap back home. Be productive. Lead your kids and do something with the gift that God has given you. We on the field of battle will continue to serve the nation all we ask in return is that you remember that it was founded on a dream of freedom. It grew around that very dream for 231 years and we ask that you do your part to preserve the dream by dreaming yourself.
Ron Graham
Sgt USA Iraq
