'Patriotic' is the word for May 14, 2010

Patriotic

The word for today is patriotic.

Our son is here visiting because in a few weeks he will be going to Afghanistan.  He is a Marine Lt. Col. select.  At the beginning of the Iraq war he was on the Kuwait and Iraq border.  Then a couple of years ago he went to Iraq.  Now he'll do a few months in Afghanistan.  The two previous times my elevated blood pressure gave away that I was actually stressed, even though I didn't think I was.  He came home and my blood pressure went back to normal. So I'm expecting the same thing to happen this time. 

I am a true patriot.  I fly our flag.  I become upset when people do not respect and fail to appreciate this country.  I once painted an American flag on a wall in my home and inside it I painted the music and words to "America the Beautiful".  You may not like that about me.  I do not apologize; that's who I am and how I feel.  But, and you probably guessed there was a but, seeing my son ready to go into a war zone for the third time is a true test.  I can only imagine how the families who have lost their loved ones might feel and I can understand those who doubt the need for such a horrific sacrifice.  War and soldiering is terrible.  In fact that's not even descriptive enough.  War is evil, devastating; an unimaginable terror.  It is however, still necessary.

If we could convince all the rest of the world to "play nice" we wouldn't have to have a military.  There would be no war.  People would co-exist in harmony.  The fact is this is not realistic and will never be.  For whatever reason, humans are violent.   They are determined to make enemies of other humans who do not share all their beliefs.  It's just a sad fact.

I will continue to be patriotic, and I'll pray my son will once again return from a war zone safe and sound.  I'll pray that we will have a safer world in the future than we have had in the past.  If, God forbid, he doesn't come home or if he's hurt, I'll grieve and I'll be devastated.  I may shut myself off, however in time I'll try to help the rest of our family and in the end, I think I will still be patriotic.

There is no country any better than ours.  And it is ours.  We make it what it is; it's us.  If we disagree with the laws or anything in our government we can say so, and pray to whatever power you believe in that this will always be true for the USA.  We are not always fair and just or right but it's my belief we try to be.  So, how can we turn against ourselves?  That makes no sense. 

Patriotic, is an extremely difficult thing to be, and it's the word for today.

Patriotic

 GOD BLESS THE USA!