Happy Fourth of July

This poem puts everything into perspective:

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.

With hair cut square and eyes alert,

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 mother's tears?

How many pilot's planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldier's 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 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 at Arlington

NO, FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!

I hope you enjoy your freedom this weekend and say a prayer for our troops!

Of all the gifts you could give a U.S. Soldier, prayer is the very best one!