Freedom is Not Free
Freedom Is Not Free
I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
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 died at sea?
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.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
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 died at sea?
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.
God bless & keep all who serve in defense of this Republic & her Constitution...and particularly may He rest all those who have given the last full measure of devotion in that service.
That includes my Uncle Albert Spacil, my mom's only brother & my dear, deceased grandparent's only son. He died in a B-17 over Germany in 1944. God continue to rest his soul until we're all gathered over yonder, across Jordan in our Father's Kingdom.
...and may God grant that we have the strength, courage, conviction, virtue, and faith to stand in our turn against internal tyranny and marxism any time it takes root amongst us (as it did in the 2008 elections) and halt its growth and then route the vipers out on a rail at the first opportunity.
We simply must do this. Too many have sacrificed their all to purchase our libverty and they are watching from above, wondering if we will allow their sacrifice to have been in vain. They know that freedom is not free. It never has been, and never will be.
America has paid the price of freedom in its own blood, both here on our own shores, and abroad throughout the world. From Concord, to Bunker Hill, to Trenton, to Lake Champlain, to Valley Forge, to Cowpens, to Yorktown...to Tripoli...to Ft. Mieg, to Lake Erie, to Horseshoe Bend, to Chippewa and to New Orleans... to The Alamo, San Jacinto, Buena Vista, Palo Alto, Monterrey and the Halls of Montezuma...to Bull Run (twice), Antietam, Fredericksburg, Shiloh, Vicksburg, The Wilderness, Gettysburg, Atlanta and Appomattox...to Manila Bay, Guantanamo Bay, to Santiago and San Juan Hill...to Chateau Thierry and the Argonne Forest...to Pearl Harbor, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, to Normandy, Luxembourg, to islands and atolls throughout the Pacific, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, to the Philippines...to Seoul, Pusan, Inchon, Chosin, Chipyoongi, Pork Chop Hill and throughout Korea...to Ia Drang, Khe Sahn, Dak To, Hue, Kim Son, Hamburger Hill, "Downtown" Hanoi, An Loc and all across South Vietnam into Cambodia and Laos...to Grenada and Panama…to Kuwait…to Fallujah, the Debecka Pass, Nasiriyah, Haditha, Baghdad, Al Anbar, Mosel, Ramadi and throughout the Sunni Triangle...to Mazari Sharif, to Kabul, to Takur Ghar, to Kandahar, to Tora Bora, to Operation Anaconda and throughout Afghanistan to name but a small few. Americans have shed their blood by the millions for freedom, and that freedom stretches from the United States throughout the world.
Let us never forget it...let us never allow our elected officials, from the President, and particularly our new president, down through representatives, senators, governors, and mayors and city councils to ever forget it.
For should we forget it, or allow our them to do so, that is the day that we will place all of our lives and liberty in abject jeopardy.
Let the following pictures remind us all of these great sacrifices for our liberty and for liberty throughout the world. Let us never forget, let us always remember, and let us never grow tired of supporting the cause of liberty here at home in our own spheres of influence in any way we can.
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