Viewpoint: We're Proud of John
We are proud of John Freeburg. As the story on page one mentions, he won the first-place award for the Best Column Writing in Class 3 with the article entitled “Scientific Facts about COVID, Not Made Up I Swear”.
Freeburg is the first writer with the exception of Lori or I to win a Colorado Press Association Award in the writing category. Each year we submit the best work from each of the people on the staff, and the judges do the rest.
In case you haven’t noticed, John has a wonderful way of being funny and making a point at the same time. You may also note that the award is in Class 3. The newspapers in Colorado are split into five classes based on the number of employees. We are a small Class 3 paper and were asked to compete against larger papers. The last year we were judged in a different class, we collected a total of 14 advertising and writing awards. This year, against the larger papers, we won this single award.
We are proud of John for other reasons. John, his wife, Marcy, and others will be honored on Monday as members of America’s fighting forces on Memorial Day. In case you missed this information, at 9:00 a.m. there will be a memorial at the Colorado City cemetery. Of course the primary guests are the men and women who have died defending and fighting for our country, but we are proud that John and Marcy and many like them will also get a little of the honor they so richly deserve.
According to statistics, over 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War. This is approximately the same as the number of deaths in all the other wars put together. Some experts have questioned that number and suggest it may be more like 750,000.
In World War II we lost over 405,000 soldiers to war. The first World War claimed over 116,000 lives and the Vietnam War claimed 58,000.
The next most costly war in terms of human life was the Korean War in which over 36,000 men died. The American Revolution claimed 25,000 and the next war- The War of 1812- added over 20,000 more to that number.
The Mexican-American War had a body count of 13,000 Americans followed by the ongoing War on Terror at 7,000 lives. The Spanish-American War had 2,500 casualties and the Gulf War saw over 250 give their lives.
If you divide that total by the age of the country, over 5,300 military people have died every year, war or peace, to allow some Americans to rage at police. To allow Americans to riot in the streets of our major cities. To allow Americans to disparage fellow Americans and the flag that others fought and died under.
That’s the way it is when you put your life on the line for freedom. Some of the freedoms you save may not be the things you wanted to put your life on the line for. You may be okay fighting for the right to bear arms but not as excited about the right to kill the unborn.
You may be almost enthused about defending the right to vote with your very life but not quite sure you want to take a bullet for the right to burn the flag. You may want to stand up for the freedom of religion but not be as excited about watching people burn down our cities.
“Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it.” Albert Einstein.
“Governments first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” Ronald Reagan.
We’re proud of John, and a lot of men and women like him.