Fight for Freedom

I attended a farewell party last night for Sam, a friend, being deployed overseas. He expects to be gone for the next year.

This event caused me to pause and reflect once more on the individuals that are stationed around the world as part of the United States military. Some of them are in combat areas; others are not. All of them have sacrificed being at home, being with family and friends, living as they are accustomed, and dozens of little things that make up life. They've chosen to give up what they know and to risk their lives.

With current news reports often focusing on how military (and other) persons are affected in Iraq (and other controversial areas), the many other men and women in the military can slip one's mind. And even as one hears the news reports, it can be easy to hear them as simply statistics. Forgetting that each death reported represents a grieving family--parents, siblings, spouse, children. Forgetting that each death represents lost dreams, lost futures, lost achievements.

But even as these individual families grieve and individual futures are lost, they have extended for that much longer the hopes and dreams of many others. They keep alive for that much longer the hope that all men will not only be created equal, but that all men will be treated as equal. They keep alive for that much longer the dreams of all men to live free and happy.

To Daniel, Kyle, Amy, Matt, Paul, and Sam, you are in my thoughts and prayers.