Know Them By Heart
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My sons and their classmates,
Past, present, and future,
Those proud few with whom they've spent four roller coaster years,
Honored heroes who have gone before, blazing a path to guide the new discoverers,
Academic warriors passing on skills, traditions, and knowledge to arm the new fighters,
Scholars dedicated to the research by which we understand what has been,
So that professors who donate their years can teach what is,
And planners and engineers, can teach us to dream what might be.
Our young men and women have committed themselves
To keeping our country free, strong, and proud.
They are the proof that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
In our present time,
When city walls have been rendered obsolete,
They form our impregnable fortresses.
In a day when thousands can be wiped out in a single violent encounter,
They are our caring hands, our hurting hearts, and our nurturing hugs.
Whether they are eliminating a threat,
Healing a hurt,
Sharing a candy bar,
Or finding a lost mother, a lost meal, or a lost soul,
They are us, at our best, and we are them.
It Is the Soldier
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom
of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."
Father Dennis Edward O'Brien,
Sergeant, United States Marine
Corps
