Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day

As we all enjoy a long weekend with our loved ones, the official start to summer we all need to realize and appreciate the reason for Memorial Day. I've never been a person of great words so I turn to someone else to get across my feelings of today. This poem has circulated through social media and email but thought it needed to be acknowledged as more than a status update or mass forward. The men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom deserve more.





Freedom is Not Free


by Kelly Strong




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 soldiers' graves?

No, freedom is not 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 had 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 the unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom is not free!!









For those who gave all so that we may live in freedom, your sacrifice was not in vain. For those who have served, are serving, and will serve, thank you for your bravery and willingness to give yourself so that we all can be free!

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