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2000 Soap Box Archives A Christmas Salute It’s a pre-dawn December morning as I sit in my house surrounded by the trappings of Christmas. Hazel always decorates several trees and the furniture is loaded with figurines and snow domes. Christmas is my very favorite holiday and as we wind down the year and plan the parties we’ll attend and the presents we will buy. As the festivities swing into high gear I contemplate the true meaning of Christmas and the joyous reason for it’s existence. A season of peace and good will, of family and friends, of giving and receiving, laughter and merriment and all manner of wonderful things. As I anticipate the fun and warmth of the season I can’t help but think of my brother and sisters who are far away from home manning the battlements and holding the line. Our sons and daughters who serve in our military. I salute you noble ones, I salute your courage, your commitment, your devotion to duty and honor, your willingness to spend your time in hell holes like Bosnia and the Persian Gulf. Where the language is strange and the enemy is very real. In Korea where you stare across an imaginary line into the cold eyes of a people who would like nothing better than to destroy us. On submarines, destroyers, aircraft carriers where home this time of year must seem a million miles away. At the northeast gate in Cuba where you daily observe the death throes of communism. In a thousand gloomy places around this planet where you serve the country you love, I salute you. Please know that we admire and support you even though a would be commander and chief stood aimlessly by while scum bag politicians tried to find a way to disqualify your votes. While a congress who is scared of it’s own shadow stood by and watched while a draft dodger from Arkansas decimated your numbers and denied you the very tools you need to do your job. Please know that you are loved, please know that you are missed and talked about and appreciated. Please know that the people who make this country work think you’re a pretty special breed of people. We are beholden to you my brothers and sisters. America owes you. We owe you for the good night’s sleep we got last night because you were awake protecting us. We owe you because we can raise our children and worship our God in whatever way we see fit. We are in your debt because you gave up part of your life to serve the cause of freedom and the preservation of the American way of life. So wherever you are, in whatever far flung corner of the world you happen to be let me wish you a Merry Christmas along with my fondest wishes, my great admiration, my heartfelt gratitude and my sincere prayers. In the simple but meaningful words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone”. What do you think? God
bless America
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