For those who serve

   Growing up as the child of a service member, days like today mean something different to me. To some it's the day the pools open, to others it's their official start of summer. While those are all very exciting things especially in the Midwest where summer means heat and humidity, to me Memorial Day is about my dad. In the post- 9/11 world we live in, people tend to say thank you more often to the peole who keep our country safe than they did before our counrty was attacked and innocent lives taken for no reason other than that people didn't like us. But I want to ask that every one say thank you not just on national holidays when you think about it. Say it every day because every single day service men and women give us the gift of freedom.
   I've learned recently things about my father's job that as a child would have baffled and confused me, things that would have made it hard to sleep at night. But then I think that if I had known then what I know now maybe I would have slept just as peacefully knowing that my dad and the men he worked with were keeping us all safe.
   So from my little corner of the world I want to tell them all thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for sacrificing so much so that I am able to share my thoughts freely with anyone who cares to read them. Thank you for missing holidays and birthdays, anniversaries and births, so that we all may live free from oppression and terror. Thank you to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that others may come home to their families. Also, thank you to the families who serve alongside the memebers of the military. We know they do not serve alone and that the families also make great sacrifices for the protection of our country. Thank you and God bless each and every one of you.