If you live in the United States, you'll know that the Republican National Convention took place last week. While news networks focused on the speech copying, or how Donald Trump embraced his wife and daughter, I had my focus drawn to something different entirely; on Wednesday July 20, 2016, there was a scheduled flag burning in Cleveland, Ohio outside of the Republican National Convention. Now, I'm not saying that this wasn't on the news, it just wasn't featured as much as the happenings inside the convention center. A man was so set on burning our Nation's flag that he caught himself and two other people on fire and then got into a violent altercation with the police.
This story got me thinking about how I view our country and how some people seem to be taking our freedom for granted and not appreciating it at all. Here's some background on me and why I think our flag and any other symbol of our Nation's freedom is so important.
Our National Anthem holds different meanings and brings forward different emotions in different people. For me, not only does the National Anthem evoke a feeling of pride in my country, it brings forward a mix of other emotions as well. You see, I'm a United States Army sister- my brother served in the U.S. Army for four years and spent time overseas in Afghanistan. When I hear our National Anthem, I think of basic training graduations, memorials, homecomings and goodbyes on top of the football and baseball games most people think of when they think of somewhere they would hear the National Anthem.
A lot of people don't really talk abut why we shouldn't take our freedom for granted, but I have lived through the sleepless nights, the fear, the anxiety, the hope and the joy and pain that come with being a family member of a deployed soldier. Even now that he is home and safe, not serving on active duty, I have so much respect for my brother and the people who fought alongside him, his friends (some of whom made it home and others who aren't with us today) that it is extremely difficult to try and put it into words. For me, it isn't just "our troops" that are overseas. It is some of the bravest men and women that any of us know, and they're some of the strongest as well. When I hear the music to our National Anthem, I get goosebumps and sometimes it even brings tears to my eyes because I know the sacrifice that our nation's greatest men and women who serve in our armed forces are willing to make on a daily basis.
So to our U.S. military - former, current, and future - and their families, Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for our country so we can live freely.
God bless America. God bless our troops.
