Red, White, and Blue Musings

Tomorrow is the fourth of July... I am just working, and then hopefully at night my family will be able to have a cookout, and maybe a pool party or something, and then go watch the fireworks on the beach.
I wonder how many people stop and remember what this holiday stands for: our freedom, our identity as a nation, our pride in proclaiming liberty, and being willing to lay down our lives for these principles.
Or are we?
I know that when I was sworn into the military, and I swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..." that I was ready and willing to lay down my life for our nation. The constitution is just a piece of paper; but the principles it embodies are far reaching and eternal. Our freedom has been bought as a price. It cost us the courage and sacrifice of our Founding Fathers, to hang together or hang separately. They stuck their necks out to stand up for what they believed in... and they stood strong. It has been bought with the very life blood of young men and women for over two hundred years... blood that has been cruelly seeped into the grounds of Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, the Middle East, and our very own homeland. Our nation is built on the sacrifices of parents burying their children; of old men forever scarred by the horrors of war.
But our freedom is more than something bought at the ultimate price. It is a privilege to be born free. But it is our DUTY to die free. I pray that we do not falter now in this time in our nation's history. We are at our strongest; yet we are at our weakest because we are willing to buy into the lies that freedom is free; that we will always remain free as we lay down our arms, and live in peace (read: mind our own business). Not true. Freedom must be continually fought for, or we will lose it forever in our complacency. To take freedom for granted is to give up our freedom. The recognition of its cost, and its vulnerable position in our society increases its value.
Let's not be the generation that sold itself its greatest gift into tyranny. Stand up for our nation, believe in her, but most of all, appreciate the liberties we are privilege to have as citizens of this great nation.