Something we all need to remember

[Wilma]

I am putting this here in politics so that you who not read poetry won't miss it.


I watched the flag pass by one day, it fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it, and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform, so young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert, he'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him, had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil, how many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?  How many died at sea.
How many foxholes were soldier's grave?  No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night, when everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play and felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times that Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin, of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children, of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands, with interrupted lives.

Thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.  No, freedom isn't free.

                                      Author Unknown

[dnalexander]

Author Kelly Strong 1981

Poem Title: FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

Commander
Unites States Coast Guard

This poem is important to Kelly because he wrote it as a high school senior (JROTC cadet) at Homestead High, Homestead, FL. in 1981. It is a tribute to his father, a career marine who served two tours in Viet Nam.

When he finds others trying to take credit for the authorship of the poem, Kelly sees it as a dishonor to the man who inspired the poem, his Dad.

Kelly is now an active duty Coast Guard pilot living in Mobile and serving at the US Coast Guard Aviation Training Center. He has three kids and a great wife, Najwa, who just completed work at the Miami VA clinic as a physical therapist.

[Wilma]

Thank you.  It is good to know that.  The poem was neither named nor the author given in the e-mail I received.  I thought it was too true to not pass on.

[Teresa]

Time for perspective....and appreciation.

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