For Our Veterans

I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to honor the brilliant men and women who have stood up throughout our nation's history to defend our freedoms and liberties at home and abroad.  They have laid their lives on the line in the air, on land, and at sea so that the rest of might know comfort, peace, life, and liberty.  We continue to be who we are because they stand in our defense.

We have not always treated our veterans with the respect and rights that they deserve; anyone who has worked at, or known someone admitted to a VA hospital knows that.  I have never heard anything good about anyone's experience in these places.  

We must take the greatest care in sheltering our veterans when they come home from war.  We must help heal them as the scars of battle seldom fade simply with time and distance from action.

And I would hope that our elected officials, who send our men and women off to war to defend our freedoms and our Constitution, would remember that they too have taken oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that if they break that oath, they should think twice before sending others to fulfill it.  Liberty begins at home.  When you send our men and women to war you must live by example and protect our freedoms and our Constitution at home.  If you cannot, then you have no right to put one American in harms way. 

Don't you ever forget that.

To everyone who has served in our armed forces, thank you.