05/11/2024
I was a little over 3 years old when I immigrated to this great nation.
I was 19 when I was finally naturalized as a citizen, and 19 was also when I enlisted in the US Marines.
I did 5 tours as an infantryman in support of OIF and OEF.
20 years of being eligible to vote, yet this was the first time for me. It seems there’s a palpable threat to our freedom and our Republic, and so this year for the first time, I made it to the polls.
As I sit here in my truck and contemplate on the gravity of what just occurred, I can’t help but find my eyes filled with tears.
I’ve defended the polls on election days in countries abroad. In places where civil liberties seem to live in a locked vacuum, but terrible atrocities are a daily occurance. I have no delusion that we were ambassadors for democracy to these foreign lands, but the idea that we had to protect these people from themselves, in hopes for a better tomorrow for them reminds me of the weight and responsibilities we carry as a free people.
I hope and pray that whomever finds themselves swearing into office in the coming days, that they keep in mind the great cost and sacrifice of what it took to birth this amazing place I’m privileged to call home.
There’s been far too much rage and divisiveness in our republic in the years past. I pray we find ourselves as united as we were on Sept 12, 2001. I pray for my kids to know that America… to feel that pride, of what has been carved out for them by the blood of men and women they are yet to pay forward.
It will never escape me, the cost of this freedom so many these days seem to take for granted. I’ve walked among giants and buried more than I care to count, but we stand on their shoulders while we continue to enjoy and pay tribute to their sacrifices.
I feel a sense of shame for not exercising this unbelievable right sooner in my life, but regret has never been a useful fuel to incite any positive change-at least not for me. In that spirit I will make it a priority to ensure that those who can no longer vote still get a say for the sacrifices they made for us; for me to be able to grow grey in my beard and hear the genuine laughter and love in my children…
I think Thomas Jefferson said it best:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Here’s to a united, grateful country, the land I call home, the home I pray our children can carve out their own slices of happiness and prosperity.
SFMF