Someone Elses America

For the past few years I've attended the Memorial Day and 4th of July parades in a small town in michigan called Dansville.

People line the streets eager to watch their fellow citizens ride or walk past on their horses, in their cars, carrying banners, throwing out candy to the children...

And I can't help but fill up with pride for this nation. These are GOOD people. They aren't "redneck hicks" with 1 tooth and trailer homes... They are hard working, care-about-everyone people who wave at you on the street, or hold doors open for you, who address you as "sir" or "ma'am" regardless of your age...

These people LOVE American and totally appreciate the men and women who are giving EVERYTHING to make America what it is. The aren't taking it for granted, which is something a lot of us city folk do.

We sit here in our free America aruging over who is the most attractive , who has the coolest car, whose opinion is more valid... All the while forgetting just why exactly it is possible for us to do those very things.

Never do we stop to think that SOME people don't have the same liberties as we do, the liberties we so often take for granted.

Every parade I've been to has had a section that rolls past of Veterans and current soliders home on temporary leave. When they roll by, the cheering is thunderous, some people saluting them, some people removing their hats and placing their right hand over their heart, and all the little kids on their parents shoulders trying to get a look at "Real American Heroes". And if you look closely, you can see tears in the eyes of these men and women, who finally get to realize that what they are doing for us is appreciated.

Yet we get so wrapped up in whether our current situation is right or wrong, we forget to pay attention to the MOST important thing of all. Our HEROES. The ones who give us the very freedom to sit here and whine and cry about something we disagree with.

This is AMERICA. Land of the free, home of the brave.

It's time to take a closer look at these people you define as "redneck hicks", who you write off as the special-ed class of society, the people you underestimate and assume are slack jawed hillbillies with no comprehension for the english language... These people are none of those things, these people are AMERICANS, the TRUE Americans that understand what it costs for us to live the way we do and DON'T take it for granted the way so many of us do.

If you're living here in America, know that thousands upon thousands of men and women have died just so YOU, someone they most likely have never met before can live in a free world.

And what are WE doing to make the world a better place?

We're sitting here bitching about "The Wrong War at the wrong place at the wrong time", we're whining about our "struggling economy", we're arguing about abortion and the precise definition of what "sex" is...

We're not taking even a moment to realize that we have been given liberty, now its time to give this gift that would should CHERISH to as many nations as we can... No more sitting on our hands, get out there and do something to help someone.

You don't have to agree with the war, not everyone does, but complaining about it will not solve anything. It's time to take action. It's time to make the world a better place with our physical contributions instead of our hate filled and sarcastic remarks about the leadership of this country.

It's time to stop taking for granted the liberties we endulge ourselves in every day, its time to realize just how very lucky we are, and at the same time just how SELFISH and ARROGANT we are about what we have as Americans...

It's time to be AMERICA, the land of the FREE, the home of the BRAVE, a country of honor, a country that makes all other nations jealous of what we are and what we have, it's time to STAND UNITED against the pitfalls, its time to do something about the oppression people in other nations face and no more just sitting around keeping to ourselves...

Lets not argue about the war, lets not argue about the President for the Government is a power LENDED by the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and let me tell you that NO FORCE ON EARTH is stronger than the potential we have as a unified America in making a difference.