Say "Thank you for your service"

I drew this for a close friend of mine recently. He's a humble man and he'd probably be upset if he knew I was sharing this … as he doesn't make a big deal about what he did while he was in the military … so I won't share his name. But, he once showed me a picture of himself from back in the day when he was a sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the image of him standing tall and straight and solemn stuck with me for months ... until I completed this piece and had it matted and framed for him.

As I worked on it, I thought about the sacrifices that so many have made over the decades and centuries to preserve our freedom. And I was reminded of it again today as I read the obituary of a WWII vet who passed away. In my own lineage, some of my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War … my 6th great-grandfather rode with Col. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys … my grandfather fought in the trenches in WWI and my father was a fighter pilot in WWII. My son serves on two fronts … as a police officer and as an MP in the National Guard. He ships out on a deployment in March and will be gone for a year. I'll miss him more than I can describe, but a father couldn't be prouder.

I suppose this is a trite saying to some … but freedom isn't free. We are citizens of one of the few free countries on the planet. That is so because men and women answered the call during times of crisis … some paying the ultimate price so that those who came after them wouldn't have to live under the weight of oppression.

I suppose I'm old fashioned. I enjoy the paintings of Norman Rockwell and Terry Redlin and the music of John Phillips Sousa. I stand for the anthem, put my hand over my heart and my eyes still get teary when it's played. I know our country isn't perfect. Collectively we've made some mistakes and there are more than a few dark chapters in the book we've written. But I acknowledge them while still maintaining that the US is the best place on earth to live. And if someone disagrees, they are always free to go live somewhere else rather than make the rest of us miserable with their whining. If they were a citizen in one of many other countries, they wouldn’t have the right to complain or to leave. Instead, they’d be thrown into a prison or a “re-education camp” where they’d be sentenced to hard labor and learn that it isn’t a good idea to criticize the state. I hope patriotism never goes out of style ... and believe if it does, hope will go with it ... and I don't apologize for that.

So, next time you see someone who is or was in the military, thank them for their service. If you see them in a restaurant, buy their meal for them. Consider contributing to one of the many organizations that support veterans. It's the least we can do.