July 4th. I can't say it always meant to me what it does today. As I've gotten a little older and become more appreciative of how hard it is to provide for my family every day, not just me, but my wife and I as a team, I've come to appreciated the sacrifice that has been made for our life today in America.
We just returned from a family vaction to Hawaii. I was blessed to have a family member fly us all there for two weeks which was a total blessing on every level. The most moving experience was standing over the USS Arizona, oil still leaking from her shattered but not dissolved body. Nearly 70 years after that fateful day taking the lives of over 2,000 of America's best and brightest , she still bleeds for America. Tears came to my eyes as I contemplated the living hell those who didn't die immediatly had to endure before God took them home, burning oil, exploding munitions, suffocation trapped hopelessly in the belly of the most state of the art warships on the planet. Hulls so thick that they could not escape or be reached by rescuers trying to cut through the inches thick steel plating.
I shed a tear or two standing in the memorial looking at the massive 30 foot wall of marble with the name and rank of every patriot that died on the USS Arizona that day and was just as moved to learn that as their surviving shipmates have passed, many have been intered with them in the past 30 years.
I fear that America has lost her humility, her passion for excellence and her ability to remember just who it was and is that gave us the greatest nation the world has ever know. So today and this weekend I remember and thank those who have given their lives and their limbs to keep us free, I thank God Almighty for all that he has blessed us with despite our retched predisposition for sin and selfishness, I pray that American's this weekend especially will take time to contemplate what it really takes in blood, finances and moral fortitude to carry the responsibility of all that we have been entrusted with.
God bless America and all those today and through the years who have served this nation so faithfully.
