Thank you to all veterans

Thank You Veterans

The sweet taste of freedom comes with an underlying responsibility to always remember.  The sacrifice of our forefathers and mothers to form our great nation came at the greatest of costs.  They were not, or could have been worried about their own self-serving interests, and gave up peace in their day, so that we may have peace in ours.  Why does it seem the farther removed we are from their sacrifice, the more self-absorbed we are becoming in our own individual right to follow any whim we desire?  Freedom is not a license to do whatever we want, when we want. 

We have lost sight that the sanctity of the individual is bound in an honorable commitment to family, brotherhood and country.   The honor of being an American and truly free has been lost under the weight of the “importance” of being an individual.  True honor for an individual lies in a commitment to family, having a sense of community, and remembering how these in harmony, form our great country.  Too frequently we forget that the rights of the individual does not outweigh freedom itself.  Freedom is not a rally cry to throw in others’ faces when the need arises to say whatever we want, or do whatever we want, or feel that we are being pressed upon when it serves our own selfish needs.   This would seem to be the paradox of freedom.

How many of us have truly heard the sound of a tyrant’s rant we are bound to follow, or the taste of bitterness in not having a voice, or the sting of a whip, or having everything you possess, including your dignity, taken from you while those around you could do nothing?  Not in my lifetime, not in the United States.  Many of us want to blame our leaders, our government and our educational system for society’s ills, and yet, these same people do not want to take a stand or hold themselves accountable for their lack of commitment to better themselves and the families to which they belong.  It is so much easier to blame.  

And so our country suffers.

We are capable of so much good and seem to be on the verge of wonders never thought possible before in medicine, travel and technology that it shortens my breath with excitement.   There is so much on the horizon if we but open our eyes.  Yet many cannot see above the devices they hold in their hands, and look into the eyes of others and acknowledge what we should know in our hearts.  God has blessed our country.  And we are a great nation because of what we stand for…that as united brothers and sisters, we are above all…American.

We have forgotten the true essence of days like Memorial Day…to remember.​

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Mark Perretta

Memorial Day, May 2015

"Remember the real heroes are quite simply the ones who try to make a difference, and their only intentions are to help those who can’t do it for themselves.  Their motives are pure, and the only truth they know, or need to, is what they ought to do...and they do it.”

​-John Mann

​Heaven Above, Earth Below

USS Indianapolis

HEaven Above, Earth Below

Inspired by true events