Veterans tribute

Tribute to Veterans

I have felt blessed to live in the United States all my life. Part of what makes our country great is the ample freedom we enjoy.

But, as the saying goes, “freedom is not free.”

The security, power and military superiority of the United States was earned by the blood, sweat, tears and backs of our veterans.

This “blanket of security” is indeed, stitched with bloody gauze of our servicemen and women. While I have enjoyed its protection, I have never contributed a square of cloth to it.

I am convicted by the courage of the veterans who charged the beaches of Normandy in World War II. This “greatest generation” quite literally saved the world from the Nazi’s plan to take over the world.

I admire the men who faced the Battle of Inchon in the Korean Conflict. I am confronted by the bravery of the men who faced the incessant attacks of the Vietcong. In both these conflicts, our servicemen who received tragically little support from back home.

More recently, our service personnel freed tiny Kuwait from attacks by Saddam Hussein of Iraq during Desert Storm; only to return later and liberate Iraq and Afghanistan from Islamic extremists. Make no mistake: the U.S. won both those wars handily!Defeating insurgencies is quite another matter, and is a police matter that we are asking our troops to do.

I am glad to see how much more support our returning troops now receive. At the college football games I attend, some of the loudest cheers are often for a service man or woman being reunited with his or her family.

We can all simply acknowledge the contribution they have made, and continue to make, to do their duty on our behalf.

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See more of Mr. Peel’s articles onDavidBPeel.blogspot.com. Mr. Peel may be available to speak to your church or club. Contact PeelLawFirm.com.

a tribute to a friend

A Tribute to a Friend

With a heavy heart, I said goodbye to a friend,

Who passed from us far too soon.

Maybe it is not for us to understand

Why things happen as they do.

This world that we slog through,

With its toil, losses, thorns and pain,

Is only our home for a little while,

Until with our forefathers we are lain.

Still, though we are saddened,

Disillusioned, shocked and numbed,

I know what happened to my friend,

Seconds after his life succumbed.

He stands now, in a place with no pain,

No fears, no losses and not one tear,

Serving the One who loves past us,

And He will, to us, draw near.

Amidst golden roads and crystal seas,

The brightness is as the sun,

There is no evening or darkness there,

As the battle is already won.

It is up to our community to love well,

As a family carries on through the loss,

And I know that he would want all of us,

To simply cling to the Old Rugged Cross.

It is now to us, the living he left,

To carry on against the waves of strife,

Let this question resonate through your soul:

Is your name, like his, in the Lamb’s Book of Life?