OK so they say that confession is good for the soul. Well sometimes what we have to confess is that we already have something good for the soul. I am a Patriot.
Tears come to my eyes when they play the Star Spangled Banner at a high school football game and those around me stand and sing. I get a lump in my throat to be at my Starbucks is when a young man comes in wearing his uniform so proudly. I stop and ogle at the enormous flag that flies over a park in the town where I work.
Even my choices in music are a reflection of it. Now I will tell you I don't listen to music all that much, but when I do............. Of late it has been a CD I bought last winter while at the American Pavilion at Epcot on Walt Disney World. It is a collection of Americana style songs all sung in acapella style. The talent is incredible, the arrangements wonderful and original. My favorite one is, you may have guessed, The National Anthem. It gives me goose bumps, both times i listen to it back to back after resetting it.
Many of you know I also love almost anything to do with anything that flies. My favorites are always the military planes. They are fast, big and some do the most amazing things. However it is what they represent that gets me. Simply put they are like Freedom on the wing. Maybe you'd have had to be on the ground and have them fly over low to do their work.
I watch the Military Channel and literally cry when they speak of Arlington National Cemetery. (one of my fave songs is about Arlington) A reflexive draw to the position of attention can happen for me when I see a flag being brought onto a field of play. Sitting in a seat at Wrigley field just has to fill you with a sense of what it is to be American.
Some say that the things we do as a country have no merit and no meaning. We are wasteful, twisted and corrupt. I say to them, those are universally human nature and not unique to our country. What is unique is this: FREEDOM. The Battle Hymn of the Republic (also on my recent fave CD) says "as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free." Another favorite saying is that Freedom Isn't Free. But I don't' hold that to military service. It says we all have a duty to make informed decisions that are heart felt when we vote. When we decide what we want to stand for. Might does not make right, right is right.
Debate me, convince me, let me convince you based on the weight of facts, convictions and what is the right thing to do.
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