With Veteran's Day coming up quickly, I wanted us all to take a break from perusing the various mattress sale ads and used car commercials. The following are two of my favorite pieces, and I wanted to see if they still mean anything to anyone.
The Soldier
It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves under the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-- John Stuart Mill
