One Mom's Journey: Don't get me wrong

I try to respect every one's beliefs and choices as long as you do not push them on me. I don't push mine on you and that's all I ask in return. However, with all the media surrounding gay marriage and trying to abolish American history with removing the Confederate flag, I had to take pause and think, WOW! If only our American troops still fighting a war that allows all these freedoms could get this much attention how different would America be?

The President of the United States will attend funerals for select individuals and I'm grateful on behalf of those families, but how does he pick and choose the ones he will attend? He is the Commander of our Military, how does he decide not to attend each American service man/woman that is KIA? Isn't he their "boss"? Just wondering.

I have the right to express my feelings and I choose to do so on my personal blog. I have no intentions of posting it to FB or any other social media, but I am sure there are those that might choose to read this that may not completely agree with me and that is ok too.

My personal beliefs don't matter and I choose (again, my right) not to express those feelings publicly, but what I do choose to express is my sadness of how it "feels" to me that our active military and veterans seem to get lost in all the "other stuff" the media deems important enough to blow up Face Book news feeds and the news on television rather than on our men and women still fighting a war that feels will never end.

For some, it never does end. For some of our military service men and women it will be a war they will fight the rest of their lives. They may have volunteered to enlist and go to war for our country for their own reasons, but I can promise you, if we didn't have these volunteer service men and women there would have been another draft. Regardless if they volunteered or were forced to enlist, there would have been war after 9/11. Think about that for just a moment. I can't tell you how many times I have either heard or read someone state, well, they volunteered to enlist so they "asked" for what they got. I can't tell you how sad that makes me and how ignorant it makes what these few choose to say look (at least to me). That tells me they have truly forgotten about history when the draft did exist.

For those who care to continue reading I will just state the obvious for those who have experienced the military personally and for those that haven't and are interested. Our military men and women get paid very little for extremely difficult work. It isn't that it is difficult physically (to me that goes without saying), but more emotional. These young men and women that see combat see things they should never have to see and most people will never see in their life time. Some people forget that most of these men and women are very young, most not even legal to drink, when they enlist. I know for my son he was 19 years old. He saw things by the time he was 22 years old and no longer on this earth that he nor anyone else should have to see. His brothers in arms saw things and live with images they will never be able to rid their minds of. His friends here at home will forever have a hole in their heart and lives that can never be replaced. His young wife's life was altered in ways she may never get past. His family will never be the same and for me to say I am changed forever is a complete understatement. Our world was changed in an instant because he made a grown up decision to enlist in the Marine Corps and fight for this country with a Commander at the helm of our military that (in my opinion) has made choices that I struggle to agree with. That's just me and anyone is welcome to disagree with my opinion should they choose, but I won't apologize for how I feel.

I truly do not care what your personal choices in life are. I care about everyone and their feelings, but if we "as a country" are going to choose to spot light events and make it all so public, then be fair to all events and not forget that there are bigger things out there happening in this world than who someone chooses to love or be married to or what flag they choose to fly. It seems to take just a few to make something that is personal into a huge public fight.

So today with so much going on in this world, I choose to remember those that gave all so everyone showing their right to publicly express themselves can do so. Those families that are forever changed because of this war that is still going strong today. I am thinking of all of you that have been changed forever due to this war and the impact this war has and is continuing to have on this world and especially this country and our young men and women fighting right here at home. Today, I salute you and we fly our flags proudly for you!