Our church put on a beautiful patriotic program this morning. I have a lot of respect for our military in general (see my Memorial Day post for the list of friends and family in the military) and my mom was always a red, white, and blue nut, especially around the 4th of July, so a good rendition of a patriotic song can move me to tears (they opened the service with an abbreviated version of God Bless the USA, which was beautiful) and I as I watched the video images of the flag, the military cemeteries, the images from our nations history, I started to think about all the men (and women) in the military today - how so many of them are younger than I am (including 2 of my step-brothers, currently serving over seas) and how they are all sons of somebody, etc. And how I'm going to have a son soon. And there will come a time when he turns 18 that he has to register for selective service... and how whether drafted (hopefully that won't need to happen again) or volunteering, there is a chance that he could someday serve in the military. (I suppose I could say the same for Fuss, since there are lots of women in the military, too, but for some reason it doesn't seem as likely - I guess despite the advances in gender neutrality, we still think of soldiers as men...) and I suddenly felt very weird. MY son could go fight a war some day. MY son could work to protect our country, to protect the freedoms that we so often take for granted. It made it that much more real somehow.
The 4th of July is a day to celebrate the birth of our nation. It's day to celebrate the past, our history, our Independence. But it is also a day to think about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for that independence - and those who are still out there today, working to keep those freedoms, and willing to do make sacrifices for us. It's also a day to look toward the future of our country and pray for our children and their futures - that maybe, some day those sacrifices won't have to be made...
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