Never Forget

This week has really got me thinking, thinking about the freedoms I have been blessed with my whole life. Freedom to believe what I may. Freedom to choose my career. Freedom to protect my family with any means. Freedom to voice my opinions. Freedom to love who I want to love.
The list of freedoms can be listed on and on. There are many nations in the world that also enjoy freedom, but I live in America, so I want to keep my focus here on America for the time. There seems to be more and more people who want to take away our freedoms, force us to purchase certain merchandise or services. Force us to accept beliefs and acts to be correct. Force us to fear the opinions of others. And force us to stay in silence. America is not the same as it used to be.
I remember growing up, every day in elementary school, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, allegiance to freedom and choice, allegiance to a nation of respect. Once in high school, that Allegiance was recited only once a week, and the National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, seemed to have become a myth, a forgotten carol. The sense of freedom had turned into a sense of entitlement. This is not the nation of freedom I grew up in.
This past week we honored and remembered that many men and women who lost their lives in the name of freedom, who lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. I still remember this day where I was at when I heard of the events of that day, I still remember watching that second plane crash into that tower. I still remember the years to follow, where I got to ring a bell for one of the individuals slain. I still remember having that fear of the what ifs, what if that happened here, what if someone I knew was in that tower, what if I was the one killed? Back then we were afraid of those people who wanted to rid us of our freedoms. Today we are now afraid to offend those same people, we don't want to offend anyone, so we let them take away our freedoms, one by one. Soon what freedoms will we have left? We live in uncertain times now. We must make a stand, a stand for freedom, and stand for a better future. I ask you all to look back at your lives, go back and remember that Pledge you recited many years ago, look at those words, and feel the power behind them. Remember the blood sacrificed for them. Next listen and sing along with pride to the words of the Star Spangled Banner, do you see what Francis Scott Key saw those many years ago? I ask you to not give up on this country, but stand up for our freedoms.