THE AMERICA I LIVE IN

The title of this post is a phrase that has been buzzing around in my head for a week or two.

Oddly, at the moment, I don't actually live in America, strictly speaking. But spiritually I do. And the America I live in is the America that actually has stepped up to the plate, and done our very best to make a difference in this world, even though it would be easier and more convenient not to.

A few posts down I linked to the story about parents standing between their children and service to the nation in the Military. See, I find that story interesting because that is not the America I live in.

Well, that story prompted a note from a reader, Barbara. See, Barbara lives in the America that I live in. She is a military mom and an active member of the Lutz Patriots, a group featured here before that puts together care packages for deployed soldiers they don't know. And Barbara has a different perspective on those parents...and she put it nicer than I ever would have. These are her words:

I just can't let the post go regarding the hesitancy of parents to stand behind their children wanting to enlist in the military. The Mom quoted in the Newsday.com article remarked that if something happened to her child she could not stand the guilt.

I would love to sit down and talk with her. In 1991, during the first Gulf War our son, Matt was 13. He and I watched the news regarding Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. He could not believe that the dictator of a country could just decide to invade another country in an attempt to control it's land and resources, brutally killing many innocent people. Matt made a large poster and placed it on our front fence with red, white and blue letters, stating -- WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS .

During the next few years he took courses in middle school and high school that would enable him to seek a military service academy appointment. We encouraged that and as a result, he was able to obtain a college degree and subsequent commission as a Marine Corps Infantry Officer. He is now a 1st Lieutenant, and loves what he does.

Matt has just completed two deployments and is 25 years old. When we ask him what he enjoys about the military, he loves telling us what he learns from more experienced men who are his senior, and also what he gains from teaching those younger men in his platoon. He has traveled all over the world in his young life. But most of all.... he just loves serving his country. The sight of those Trade Center Towers falling will never leave his memory. He just has an inherent God given conviction that there is right and wrong, good and evil .... and that our country is fighting a just war against terrorism.

I would tell that Mom quoted in the Newsday article that the military is not for everyone....but if she could read the letters we receive here in Florida from young enlisted men and women thanking us for care packages, she would change her mind. The most recent letter that touched me was from Jason, deployed to Iraq: " I am standing tall for our country. I just love it. And the good news is ... I just reenlisted over here."

I would tell her that I see young people every day, hanging out in malls for hours, with no direction or goals beyond what they are going to do that evening.

I would tell her that my guilt would have come from telling our son " No... I'm afraid to let you go into the military. " I am so proud of him and what he has become. And every day I just place him in God's hands.

Yep...that is the America I live in.