Gratitude ~ Purple Hearts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Please do not think that I am thankful for the cause of the Purple Heart medal.  I hate that we turn to violence to settle our differences.  I am grieved that humans die at the hands of other humans over ideas and things. 

Today, Memorial Day, we remember all of those who have died to protect the freedom of this country.  Everyone who dies in the military receives the Purple Heart.  On August 7, 1782, General George Washington - then the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army - established the Purple Heart award, originally designated as the Badge of Military Merit.

On the TV show American Pickers an episode featured the Antique Archeology team finding the family of a deceased Purple Heart recipient.  I have often seen the medal in pawn shops and surplus stores.  An organization Purple Hearts Reunited is a not-for-profit group that does this work.  We can show our gratitude by help them.

We have so much to be grateful for as a nation.  We are too busy fighting and being divided to remember the blood shed so we would be united.  Parents, children, spouses, and siblings have gone from us to ask us to stand united.  I am grateful for their sacrifice. 

When the two World Wars erupted we united to repel real evil.  Now we kill each other over anger and inconvenience.  I am thankful for my freedom but I am also aware that I need to use part of that to honor those who bought if for me with their lives.

I am not an “America right or wrong” guy.  I am a man who is grateful and realizes that with every freedom comes responsibility.  Thank you, men and women of the armed forces who died there to protect life here.  I cannot repay you but I will not forget you or fail to be grateful for what you have given me. 

Freedom Never Cries – Five for Fighting

I took a flag to a pawn shop

For a broken guitar

I took a flag to a pawn shop

How much is that guitar

I took a flag to a pawn shop

I got me that guitar

What's a flag in a pawn shop to me?

I saw a man on the TV

In a mask with a gun

A man on the TV

He had a ten year old son

I saw a man on the TV

His son had a gun

And he says that he's coming for me

I never loved the soldier until there was a war

Or thought about tomorrow

'Til my baby hit the floor

I only talk to God when somebody's about to die

I never cherished freedom

Freedom never cries

I wrote a song for a dead man

To settle my soul

A song for a dead man

And now I'll never grow old

I wrote a song for a dead man

Now I'm out in the cold

What's a song to a dead man to me?

I never loved the soldier until there was a war

Or thought about tomorrow

'Til my baby hit the floor

I only talk to God when somebody's about to die

I never cherished freedom

Freedom never cries

You can cry for her

Die for her

Lay down your life for her

Kiss and wave goodbye to her

Anything at all

You can cry for her

Die for her

Make up your mind to her

Anything at all, oh

There's a baby on the doorstep

Wailing away

There's a baby on the doorstep

Longing for the day

There's a baby on the doorstep

Who'd give his life to take

A flag to a pawn shop

A flag to a pawn shop

May he forget why he is crying some day

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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