American Valor – Military Tribute

Calvin Coolidge

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one young man (an exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat
the corn a gain and you put up another side of the fence They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms – just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free Lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

In this very important election year, listen closely to what the candidates are promising you – just maybe you will be able to tell who is about to slam the gate on America.

‘A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.’

– Thomas Jefferson

I defend the troupes in Iraq and the rest of the world because they are all-volunteer. I can rationalize that they knew what they were getting into when they signed up as we did when we volunteered for Vietnam. We all felt pride, love and patriotism for being born in America and felt a strong desire to defend her at any cost. That is noble and in this world it is unfortunately necessary.

What no one knows when they first volunteer is the pain. What pain do you feel when the hot metal cuts your flesh and opens you to the world.

What pain do you feel when your buddy dies in your arms while under fire. You would have tried to give him CPR if you could have found his face.

What pain do you feel when you have rid the country of a demonic terrorist like Saddam Hussein only to turn around and see the small child who just thanked you and gave you a hug for his new found freedom, turn, walk away and stepping on a misplaced landmine be blown into the next eternity?

What pain will we feel if we lose a war or pull out and watch as those we freed are overtaken by darkness again?

We will never know how bad that pain settles into each and every member of our armed forces overseas or their family members at home. We can only remember when it was our time how we felt. Then and only then do we remember that it never gets better, the pain only gets worse.

As years go by, men devise new and more painful tools of war that affect everyone who comes into contact with them.

We can only hope that our great leaders, from both political parties, can put aside their agendas for the coming elections and pull the wisdom of God almighty himself into their decisions about the future of our military involvement.

Should we be there? You decide.

Look around you, determine what is valuable in your life. Determine what would cause you pain if you were to lose it forever. Then you personally decide what you would be willing to do, what you would be willing to sacrifice in order to save that which is precious to you. Then let our leaders know what you feel.

There is never any joy or satisfaction in time of war. There is no good in war. There is only pain and loss. But unfortunately that is the ultimate price we must pay for our freedom and for that which is most precious to us…life itself! It is ultimately because of this personal pain and sacrifice that we can never forget our men and women in uniform. Because of this personal pain and sacrifice of war that we may be free, we
can never disgrace or humiliate our service men and women. Never!

Remember them and support them always. Most importantly love them and keep them in your prayers daily for that is what through the grace of God gets them through to the next day.