Veterans Day: What Hope Looks Like
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Two hundred and thirty four years ago- not even an instant on the cosmic clock- America took her first tentative steps towards freedom. Since those tumultuous days, this nation and the freedoms she represents, have grown, prospered and has served as a source of inspiration for billions of people in their own search for freedom.
When we see Americans proudly marching in a Veterans Day parade, we are watching the men and women who are a living testimony to those who would defend the principles and ideals of freedom. They fought for more than geography and they fought for more than country.
From the time of our inception as a nation, there have been forces determined to destroy what it is we stand for. Entire political ideologies are predicated on vilifying us and our belief that freedom serves all of mankind. Even some religious ideologies, under the thumb of the oppression, have become a tool of those who would sooner kill others and their own, rather than see people live free…
…What is hope? Well, it is an average American, from an average place, that put on a uniform and fought to liberate oppressed people- and then went home.
Of the 7 billion people on this planet, only 300 million are Americans. In other words, less than 5% of the population of this planet are Americans- and yet, the world is obsessed with our existence. In the course of the last 235 years, we have provided the world ideas, contributions and realities that are in the consciousness of virtually every human being on the planet. Given our numbers and short history, we should not have had this profound influence on history and mankind.
The secret to our our successes and influence can be attributed to one powerful word: Freedom…