Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On Veteran's Day...


On this Veteran's Day it is our duty to once again thank the men and women who have sacrificed so much that we and people around the world may be free of tyranny and oppression. The man shown on the left is Lt. John P. Balzer, USMC, my grandfather who during World War II helped to secure the highly fortified Pacific island of Iwo Jima. He never talked much about his experience and the little that I did learn about his time there came mostly through third parties. I'm guessing that part of this was because of the difficulty of facing death all around and the trauma that this creates in one's soul whether the fallen are friend or foe (I'm guessing he saw both.) I also believe that part of his silence was a result of humility. We hail these men as heros and rightly so, but I think for many of them, they merely rose up and did what they had to do when evil was on the rise in the world. These men rose up when their families and the nation they loved were at risk. Thank you, grandpa, for your example of service and Semper Fi.

It is on this Veteran's day that I fear that we are losing the values that made our country strong in the past exemplified in the lives of men like Lt. Balzer. These great men never asked for an easy life and they never waited on anyone else for handouts. They knew that it was up to them to live and work and fight when necessary to accomplish goals and promote values that were greater than themselves. What we are seeing now in our country would make many of these heros role over in their graves. We seem to be living in a country where we are afraid to stand up for the values of freedom and liberty for fear that we might "offend" someone. We want to assume that no worldview is necessarily right or wrong and that everyone, no matter who they are, is entitled to their opinion even if they are Muslim radicals. Where are the men with backbone who are willing to call a spade a "spade"? Where are the men who will selflessly stand up and speak the truth when no one else is? Where are the patriotic young Americans who will step up to the plate and lead this country where it needs to go?

On this Veteran's Day, I call on young men and women in this great country to think about how you will live. Are you going to take the path of least resistance? Are you going to wait around for others to stand up or are you going to take the initiative and be a leader as everyone around you is asleep at the switch? There would be no greater salute to our veterans this day than for the young people of this country to take up the mantle of the "Greatest Generation" and begin to sway the balance of power in the Land back toward those who value virtue, freedom, and liberty.

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