I am an American

I get up in the morning knowing that I will not beg for food on the street.
I get dressed in clothes fit for a King/Queen in some countries.
I enjoy my my wife/husband and kids, all healthy, getting an education.
I drive to work in a clean working automobile.
I have a job that is the envy of most of the World.
I stock shelves, I heal the sick, I have choices most of the world does not.
I can plan for retirement save, but I never save enough, too many things to buy.
I am safe in my town, my State, my country.
I suffer no wars in my borders, save political ones that keep the system going.
I can eat out or at home with a wealth of foods to eat, all delicious and safe.
I disagree with my government, I protest in the streets because of the Constitution.
I can worship in a Church or Mosque of My choosing, not controlled by my government.
I can stand in my Church or Synagogue and preach what I believe, unharmed.
I can join a union or rally against them.
I can become a military man, I can become a military women.
I can dress the way I want in the colors and choice of me, not my government
I can become anything I want, study anything I want, go anywhere, do anything lawful.

Why can I be an American and do these things?
Why does the rest of the world struggle with sometimes the basics of life?
Why does most of the world live in hopelessness?
Why with all the hate for us in the world do they still want to come here and live?
Because An American took a bullet, drove a tank, Flew an airplane, manned a machine gun in the face of devastating odds. Against evil tyrants.
Why?
Because no one else would.
I am an American and many of my fellow Americans lay buried around the world

Dead

Fighting for one simple Idea. Freedom!

627,000 Dead Americans.

1.9million Wounded Americans

They believed in America, her greatness, her honor, her sacrifice
and today they lay in graves marked with white crosses all around the globe
not where mothers and fathers wanted them buried, but where freedom bound them to the earth for eternity.

Aisne-Marne, France
Ardennes, Belgium
Brittany, France
Brookwood, England
Cambridge, England
Corozal, Panama
Epinal, France
Flanders Field, Belgium
Florence, Italy
Henri-Chapelle, Belgium
Lorraine, France
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Manila, Philippines
Meuse-Argonne, France
Mexico City, Mexico
Netherlands, Netherlands
Normandy, France
North Africa, Tunisia
Oise-Aisne, France
Rhone, France
Sicily-Rome, Italy
Somme, France
St. Mihiel, France
Suresnes, France

As we head into this Memorial day weekend, do not be disheartened by your elected leader choosing to ignore this great day. He too will fade into history, his tomb overshadowed by all those white crosses marking men and women who knew the only way to keep a firm hold on freedom is to give it all they had.

They did.

We are free.