I sit here in my family room like so many others on this day. I have enjoyed being with the ones I love this weekend and particularly remembering how it is all possible. I have talked with my family today, shed tears thinking of those who gave everything to provide us with freedom and then I think of my comrades over in Afghanistan and Iraq right now risking everything to keep me free. Sometimes it is too much. Sometimes the pain is too close. For instance, how many of us who have served in war can sit here comfortably as the sounds of fireworks resound from every direction. To so many Americans it is a celebration but the irony is those sounds remind me of an experience twenty years ago in a desert far away.
I don’t hear what America hears, but I do hear what my comrades hear. I remember.
I do not simply see the beauty, I am reminded of the pain, loss, and hardship of war. I remember.
I am grateful to celebrate our independence. I am even more thankful to say that I live in the best country in the world.
May God continue to Bless America!