|
 To America's Soldiers,
We pause on Memorial Day each year to pay tribute to those of your brothers-in-arms who have given themselves unselfishly so America might be free; so I might be free. The United States collectively contemplates what it truly means to live in this country. This year's celebration seems even more relevant as we watch news of the opressions in the Middle East, the junta in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, the restrictions being put in place by China as they struggle to recover from a deadly earthquake while a mere two months away from hosting the world's Olympic Games; the relevancy of our freedom has never been more clear. Here on our own soil, some of our citizens protest the war in Iraq. The nation watches the changes in legal rights for homosexual marriage. Children in Texas are caught in a struggle between faith and government. Politicians spend millions of dollars in an attempt to gain a vote. And on Sunday mornings, I can walk into a church with my head held high, in plain sight, and pray with my fellow Christians in safety. These freedoms, while they may cause controversy, are what you and your brethren have fought for. It is the diversity of views and the equal weight given to all opinions and thought that your ancestors went to their graves cherishing. Though this letter reaches you from a Christian site, it is not just to Christian soldiers. The battlefield plays no favorites, and my freedoms were not won by only followers of Christ. The blood of America's soldiers has mingled together to consecrate the precious soil I stand on. Christians and Jews, Muslims and Bhuddists, Wiccans and Spiritualists, agnostics and atheists -- the faith of the fallen did not buy my freedom to stand tall as a child of Christ. It was their courage and bravery, and their conviction that no matter my choice, I have as much right to it as themselves. For those of you now fighting on foreign soil, you will not return the same men and women you were when you left. You have seen the absolute best and worst that humanity can muster. You have questioned your own convictions, had your innocences stripped, and your lives threatened. You must redefine the deepest core of the person you thought you were. So it is not just in memory of your fallen comrades that I write, but in memory of that which has been lost within you. And just maybe, unlike those soldiers who will not come home again, you will have a chance to find new things; new ideals and new definitions to what it means to fight as an American; and new hope that at home, waiting to welcome you, is an America that is most glorious when at its most challenging because you gave each of us a voice that cannot be silenced. In the name of whatever God you pray to, may you find peace and pride in the price you have paid. ~April Gilford
|
