Give Thanks Day 8: Our Veterans

Today I'm thankful for our Veterans.  I can't describe the amount of pride I feel when I see an American flag waving.  Whether it's flying over a bank or my angel Grandpa's house or draped over the coffin of a fallen hero, the stars and stripes evoke in me a deep sense of love and respect.  


From  a very young age I recall being very patriotic.  I've always felt an immense sense of pride for my country.  I believe having both parents serve in the Navy, as well as the history my extended family has with the military, influenced this passion.  


Of all the things about this country that I'm proud of, I'm most proud of our Veterans.  I can't pretend to imagine the sacrifice our veterans have given throughout the years.  The living and the fallen heroes know this sacrifice.  

I created this for a media project for Veteran's Day 2008

Abraham Lincoln had an amazing way of capturing the spirit of this country.  His Gettysburg Address applies to many things, but his dedication to the living and fallen heroes has always been particularly powerful for me.  

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -Abraham Lincoln

God Bless our Veterans.  

14 Days to Thanksgiving!

Signed

RF