Patriotism

I have heard it said that "the only different between a patriot and a traitor is a matter of time."

I am thankful for the crowd of "patriots" in 1776 that cared enough to be called traitors for a short time, so that today long after they have been gone, they might be called Patriots.

I am also so very thankful for the Patriots of today.... who wear the camouflage, who sweat in thick armor, who keep M-16s on their body 24 hours a day, who sleep short hours, and fight so that the battle remains somewhere else.... away from our streets, our yards, our homes, our playgrounds...

I am personally proud to be a family member of one of those Uniform wearing soldiers... I sometimes wish I had a sticker that I could wear... to say "you know those guys that we honor?? well, one of those is my little brother." I grew up shooting BB guns with him - learning to ride a bike with him, played in a treehouse, pretended to be GIJoe, Transformers, and army guys (and girls) with him. We had trampoline fights, got in trouble for sliding down red mud hills in our good clothes, and learned to beat Super Mario brothers (the orginal Nintendo game) together. This little boy that woke up at 5 in the morning with me to prepare breakfast for the rest of the family sometimes.... is now waking up at 5 in the morning to keep us safe. Thank you Jon-Jon.

I am so thankful that today we, as a family, we were able to be online for a while chatting together. Mom and dad on separate computers at their house, Jen online at her house, me online in VA, and Jon in the "sandbox." How wonderful is our technology!!!

In honor of this day, the day we thank soldiers and patriots for our freedoms as a country.... I leave you a few quotes from popular patriotic songs.

God bless America, land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above. Oh beautiful for spacious skies - for amber waves of grain... Oh beautiful for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears. God bless the USA!

and finally, those words that echo longer than the writer ever imagined... Oh, say does that Star Spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave...